OPERATION KILL
by BurnLobelia
Summary: When Ouran High School discovers a new rival in Whitewood Academy two girls must defend their school, with the help of the Host Club. But can they do enough to prevent the closure of Ouran? HitachiinsxOC's   ON HIATUS
1. Disclaimer

Disclaimer

We do not own any of the characters from Ouran High School Host Club, however we do own every other character.

We are English, so we will use English language, which may have some words, which are different to Americans… obviously. XD

If you have any questions please feel free to ask them and we will try to answer them as best we can.

Thanks for reading,

Ash and Silvana


	2. Chapter 1

**Ardea's POV**

"She crept slowly up the stairs. One. At. A. Time… She couldn't see him… Couldn't hear him… But she knew he was there. Just one more step and she could reach the phone… BAM!"

Azalea shrieked in terror as I screamed in her face. It was so easy to scare her! My cousin wasn't good with scary stories. Then again she had been wrapped in cotton wool ever since she was born into her comfy rich family. I however, was less fortunate. Well, not so much anymore.

The door to Azalea's bedroom flew open and we both jumped up screaming in terror as a dark figure ran into the room brandishing a hammer.

"OHMYGOD IT'S THE AXE MURDERER!" she screamed. We clutched each other, horrified… until the lights were flicked on and we realized it was just Azalea's dad.

"What on earth is going on in here?" he demanded, wide-eyed. I stood up slowly and blinked twice.

"Uhh… We was telling ghost stories… and Zaylie got scared." I could feel my cheeks burning. I was still intimidated by my uncle, even though I had been living with him and the Wyatt family for just over a month now. Imagine what I was going to be like when school started… not a happy thought.

Uncle Thomas seemed to visibly relax. He was very protective over Azalea. I looked over at Azalea and she looked at me. In sync we turned to look at Uncle Thomas, smiled and said "Bye!"

He sighed unhappily, but slowly made his way out anyway. Me and Zaylie giggled slightly. We had become best friends ever since I moved into her house. We made a good pair of twins. Metaphorically at least. We did look kind of similar though. My hair is a dark auburn left natural and wavy to my waist. My eyes a jade green and my skin pale. Zaylie has reddish purple long, slightly messy hair, dark brown eyes and pale skin. But you can see the family connection to our grandmother in our features and long legs, though we were both only _just_ over average height.

I smiled at my cousin and she raised an eyebrow at me.

"Bed me thinks," I chirped. That was enough storytelling… for tonight at least. Azalea nodded a tired agreement and I left her room after saying god night.

My room was bigger than any I had ever had. Even now I marvelled at the stark comparison between this cream and gold paradise and my old room at my Dads house. And that was it… just that small thought started me thinking, and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight. But I pulled my PJ's on a lay down anyway.

I had lived with my dad for my entire sixteen years of life. Up until this past month that is. I would still be there if it wasn't for my mother. Dad would have spent his life happy… we would have been a family. But no. She left when I was very young, for a reason my father and me are oblivious to. Or at least I am now. My dad is dead. Overdose. I don't think I remember a time when he didn't cry himself to sleep over my mother. But he had held onto himself just enough to raise me. I guess in the end she finally killed him. Mission accomplished.

After my dads funeral I moved into my cousin's house. Or should I say manor. It was a big change for me, considering her family moved to Japan when Azalea was three, and I had never been to Japan in my life! Not that I didn't know Japanese, I had been studying it ever since my first day of school, all for the fun of it. I guess it came in handy now.

I was due to start my first day of school in a week. I would be going to the prestigious Ouran High School, on my uncle's money. I feel bad about it, but I suppose going to Zaylie's expensive school is better than spending my first day alone. Especially considering I was staring half way through the year. Woo, what fun it was going to be being the new girl in my first year of high school.

Thank goodness for cousins. Not to mention the fact that the uniforms were the ugliest things I have ever seen. Yellow and puffy just makes me think of cakes. Not a good thing to be wearing.

At least Azalea had some people to introduce me to. This should be fun. I hope.


	3. Chapter 2

**Azalea's POV**

The first morning of school. Yaaaay. I rolled myself out of bed onto the floor taking my quilt with me. I pulled myself up with some difficulty and made me way downstairs, dragging my feet across the floor as I went and making a considerable amount of noise. Ardea's bedroom door opened from across the hallway and I heard her much lighter footsteps behind me. I sat down at the kitchen table where breakfast was waiting for us. Various fruit and bagels were layed out and there were two empty glasses by our bowls. One of the servants hovered by us, politely waiting to be told when to get drinks. I glared involuntarily at my bowl, picking at bits of fruit while Ardea sat awkwardly in silence. I felt sorry for her in the mornings. I couldn't help being like this – I just wasn't a morning person. I left my breakfast half-eaten as usual and stumbled up out of the chair, trying to get the quilt from underneath my feet.

"Going for a shower," I mumbled to Ardea and hobbled upstairs. I knew I didn't have time for a long shower if I wanted to get to school on time – especially since it was Ardea's first day. I quickly washed my hair and jumped out into my room. I dried my hair and didn't bother putting a brush through it – it would get knotty during the day but it looked okay now. I got my puffy school dress out of the wardrobe and struggled to put it on. The ugly yellow washed out my skin and the big puffy shoulders made my head look disproportionate to the rest of my body. Although, if anything it was warm. In weather conditions like these where the snow was ongoing, you needed warmer clothes. I pulled on some thick, white tights and put on my black school shoes. Feeling much more alert and wide awake, I made my way downstairs to wait for Ardea to come down so we could leave for school.

Ardea took forever. When she finally came downstairs just in time to leave, I could tell why she had taken so long. Her long hair had been left down in its natural waves, but she had placed a sparkly slide in which had a row of flowers across it. Her face was completely made-up, she had foundation, mascara, lip gloss and a little bit of eye-liner to define her green eyes. She had _really_ made the effort. I felt under dressed beside her. My normal slightly messy hair had been left down and was pretty much the same as every other day. The extent of my make-up was a bit of mascara.

I raised an eyebrow at her as she turned towards me. Ardea knew exactly what I was thinking because her response was 'Bah, screw you" before sending both of us into a laughing fit. I wasn't laughing that much at what she had said, it was more because of her contagious laughter.

We got into our limo which took us to school slowly because of the snow. Other limo's were driving round the fountain to drop off the Ouran Academy students. Next to me, Ardea was staring at all the other cars. I couldn't blame her – even I'd stared on my first day, I'd never seen so many big and expensive cars all in the same place at one time.

"Come on then, we better get you a timetable." I said as the car stopped at the front of the steps to the entrance. It was halfway through the year now and although Ardea had been living with us for a month, she could only apply for school at the start of a new term. You could tell she was nervous because she was pacing as we waited for the office secretaries to print out her timetable.

As we looked over it, we saw that she had the exact same timetable as me.

"We're in all the same classes, that's good. I can show you around now." I said happily, but Ardea only nodded. As the first chime of the clock tower went off, we slowly made our way to our first class. We fought against the sea of yellow and blue to get to English where I made my way to my usual corner where my friends Chika, Erina, Hikari, Nora, Juro and Haruto where all sitting.

As Ardea and I walked towards them, Chika looked up and waved to us to join them.

"Hi," I said to everyone who were all trying not to stare at Ardea. "This is my cousin I was talking about, Ardea. Ardea, this is Chika, Erina, Hikari, Juro and Haruto." I introduced everyone in turn who all smiled as they heard their name being called out. It was rather amusing to watch. We all sat and talked until our teacher, Mr. Okinawa walked into the room and everyone took their seats – apart from Ardea.

"Ah yes, you are the new student. Welcome to Ouran Academy. Take a seat next to Nora. Everyone, this is Ardea, she has come from England to live with her cousin, Azalea." He introduced her to the whole class and I watched her face get redder and redder as she looked down at the table. Everyone was staring at her, even the Hitachiin twins who don't usually show an interest in anyone when outside of the host club.

Ardea took short, quick glances up at the people around her. I noticed that she held her gaze longer when she met eyes with one of the twins – although at this moment in time I couldn't tell which one she was looking at, it was much easier to tell them apart when they were speaking. I didn't blame her for looking, they were easily the best looking boys in class. Once the class had stopped playing zoo's with her and everyone settled down, I saw Nora nudge her and talk some more. I was glad that she was, I didn't want Ardea to be on her own for lessons.

At break time, we all sat in the dining area by the window watching the snow fall when two people approached us. Looking up, I saw it was Kaoru and Hikaru Hitachiin, grinning madly and both looking at Ardea.

"We'd like to invite you to the host club this lunchtime!" They both chanted simultaneously. Ardea looked up at the in confusion while the rest of the group rolled their eyes and looked back out the window. My group of friends had never been interested in the host club. Secretly, I went once just because I was interested, their 'manager' Renge scared me so much that I never went again. I never told anyone either.

"What is a host club?" She asked them, I would have told her myself but I was sure that as members of the host club they could tell her a lot better than I could.

"You'll see, come to music room three at lunch!" They said once again before running off to wherever it is they go to – probably to meet their friend Haruhi I expect.

Ok, so that was the worst explanation they could have given her. Ardea looked at me for an explanation but I just shrugged and went back to talking to Chika.

Lunchtime came pretty quickly, I'd hoped that Ardea would forget about the host club and would want to just sit and eat with us like we normally would, but of course not.

"I just want to go see what's there," She said, trying to use puppy-dog eyes to make me cave-in and go with her. Not that I could stop her, she was already dragging me down the hallway to the music room where they held their club and their 'evil' manager was waiting to scare me again.

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**Leave a message for this chapter! Thank you! Over-use of exclamation marks!**

**Ash 3**


	4. Chapter 3

**Ardea's POV**

This so called 'host club' fascinated me. My curiosity was just ignited by the fact that _nobody_ would tell me what it was! Some kind of secret organisation? I could feel myself almost skip down the halls as my excitement built up. After the nerves of this morning, I had been worked up all day, and all that tension was deciding to relieve itself through this bubbly feeling in me.

I tugged at Azalea's hand harder, urging her to go faster. Then I noticed the look on her face. Fear? I stopped and turned to face her.

"Hey Z, what's up?" I tried to look into her eyes but she kept her head down and scratched the back of her head awkwardly with her free hand.

"Heh…" she mumbled something I couldn't understand before clearing her throat and repeating. "Their manager scares me."

I could help but let out a little laugh, but I gave her a quick hug to make up for it.

"Well, you have me this time. She can't be that awful," I smiled. She looked up and seemed to give a deep sigh of resignation.

OH YES! She was coming! I bounced on the spot a few times and then continued onto music room three.

I finally found the room and proceeded to open the doors. I was met by the fragrance of roses and a chorus of "Welcome to the host club, princess."

It was all I could do to not laugh at the 'princess' part. Really, was this for real? Then I finally took note of the people standing there. A blonde boy who seemed to be taller than us, with what I assume to be a 'seductive' face. There was also another young looking shorter blonde, who grinned happily next to his extremely tall dark and handsome friend. The next dark haired boy had an expression that reminded me of Azalea when she was amused at something, but trying not to show it. He was holding a little book writing something in it, as if observing everything going on, his glasses pushed down his nose. Then there were the Hitachiin brothers, who I had heard a lot about during Geography from Azalea. They were notorious throughout the entire school. Mischievous, heartthrobs who were impossible to distinguish and even more impossible to seduce… not that I was thinking of doing any seducing… maybe. A girl could dream couldn't she! I could feel my sly grin as I looked around the host club. I knew what this place was now. Courting girls to just leave them later? Kind of skank, yet oh so tempting to join.

The taller blonde boy stepped forward and bowed smoothly, looking up again making eye-contact.

"What is your name, princess?" His voice was smooth a melodic, much like his appearance. Yeah, I am saying he was good looking, in a puppy dog kind of way.

I laughed nervously before replying. "I am not a princess… but the names Ardea. Ardea Monroe."

"What an interesting name," said the dark haired guy with glasses. "Any special reason? Family name perhaps?"

I looked over at him. How did he know? "Uhm, yeah. My…" I glanced at Azalea, "OUR Grandmothers name. It means fire. I guess I have it because of the hair."

"And what beautiful hair it is!" cried Tamaki, who was somehow almost floating around the room. "It shimmers and burns like a dying star, taking its last fiery breath of life with everything it has left! Anger that this will be it's last day of light, reflected in the passionate ruby glow." His hand came to his head and he looked almost as if he was going to cry in agony… almost. Very over-dramatic. But rather flattering at the same time.

I couldn't help but giggle at him. Azalea pulled at my sleeve and I turned to see her, _I want to go NOW,_ expression. I shook my head, this was far too much fun.

"Lady Azalea, how nice of you to come and see us again!" smiled the blonde guy.

"Yeah yeah, whatever Tamaki." She smiled as she said it to take the bite out. "Is.. uh… Renge here?" Tamaki shook his head, and Azalea visibly relaxed. I guess Renge was their manager.

"Well I suppose I should introduce us to Ardea, because it seems to rest of you have forgotten… as usual," said one of the Hitachiin twins. He looked over at me and I realized he was the one who I had locked eyes with in English. I could feel my face start to burn. I am such an idiot.

"My name is Hikaru Hitachiin, and this is my brother Kaoru," he gestured at his twin beside him who smiled in response. "The blonde idiot is our boss, Tamaki Suoh. Feel free to ignore him. This," he said gesturing at the dark haired guy with glasses, "is Kyoya Otori, son of the famous Otori group. The tall guy is Takashi Morinozuka, who we call Mori. His little blonde friend is Mitskuni Haninozuka."

"But you can call me Honey!" cried the little blondie, jumping up to hug me. I laughed at his enthusiasm, and wondered why on earth he was in high school. How old was he?

Hikaru cleared his throat and continued the introduction. "Over in the corner is our newest member, Haruhi Fujioka," he explained. This 'Haruhi' was a brunette, the second to smallest of the group and extremely female looking. I guess that is a mean thing to think, but it was true.

The dark haired boy with glasses smirked and promptly said "well, we should be getting back to our other guests, please feel free to join a host and have fun," before walking off in another direction. Just like Azalea, not a time waster.

I glanced at my cousin who was looking as if about to bolt for the exit. I tried to pull her in the door fully but she held firm.

"Oh come on Z, pleeeeease? Just this once? Their manager isn't even here! I want to go sit with the twins!" At my last comment, her eyes lit up and she nodded reluctantly, apparently now not having anything to say or argue.

We made our way inside and headed for the red head duo. There was a nice spot for the two of us directly opposite the twins who were entertaining another two girls. We received innocent smiles as we sat and Kaoru stood up to greet us. I think it was him at least... No, I'm sure. It was Kaoru.

Kaoru's leg knocked the table and it wobbled precariously. Jumping to stop it falling, Kaoru ended up falling himself and hitting his shoulder on the chair. Everyone who saw gasped in shock and Azalea's hand flew to her mouth. Hikaru swept into action, helping his brother up and making sure he wasn't hurt.

"You are so clumsy Kaoru," he whimpered affectionately, and took his brother into his arms. Kaoru hugged him back, and they stared deep into each other's eyes. The two other girls swooned, Azalea and me stared. Twincest? And yet it wasn't as horrible as it sounds. There was something sweet and loving about it, as if they truly had a special bond. Azalea laughed lightly beside me, and I knew she was thinking the same thing.

The twins stepped away from each other and apologised to us, and the other two who were still drooling. Then all of a sudden Tamaki was springing up beside them and laughing happily. "What a wonderful performance!" he cheered.

I looked at Azalea, but she was just staring at one of the twins... I think it was Kaoru. What the hell? Uh oh... she was totally falling for him! Haha…

I turned back to Tamaki and smiled at him before saying, "so what is your role at this host club?"

His smile beamed at my attention.

"I am the king of course!" I raised an eyebrow at him, but smiled anyway. "Speaking of royalty, we have a task on our hands and we need some help from a couple of young ladies such as yourself. Do you feel up to helping us out?"

I blinked twice. My first day at school and I was already being asked to do a favour.

"Uhh... I am not sure if I should... I mean I don't even know the school..." I looked down at my hands. It sucks to be the new girl.

The twins popped up in my face. "Don't worry Ardea, we will show you around," said one.

"Get you used to the place," finished the other.

"Bu-but why me?" I squeaked.

"But not _just_ you. Azalea too. We was going to ask her anyway, but I thought we may as well ask you both," explained...Hikaru?

"Eh? Why me?" asked Azalea, indignant.

"Because you seem to be the most reasonable and sensible person in this place," said Kaoru. He moved closer to her face and stared into her eyes, issuing a challenge. "Think you can handle it?"

Azalea snorted disdainfully. "Of course I can do any task issued to the host club. Easy."

"Greaaat!" sang Tamaki. "Now that you're in, you can help Ardea!"

"Huh? I never said I would do it?" I cried. Suddenly I had three pairs of puppy dog eyes, and one glaring at me. I dismissed Azaleas moody face, ignored Tamaki and didn't dare look at Kaoru. But Hikaru... this is ridiculous. Snap out of it. SNAP SNAP SNAP... arrgh, his eyes just look so desperate for me to say yes. I am so ridiculous. I'm probably imagining it, but I know I have to say yes anyway.

"Fine," I huffed. Azalea squealed and hugged me. Why was she so happy? She didn't want to do it either? Trying to prove her point I guess.

"So… what exactly do you want us to do?" Azalea asked.

"Take care of the guest student!" If I had a drink, I would have spat it out. My first day and I was expected to take care of a _guest_? Were they completely crazy?

"…Okay!" replied Azalea, sure of herself. "As long as you don't expect me to like them." Ha! That was my Zaylie, hater of the newbies! Not that I think a guest counts… but to her it apparently does.

"That's why you have me then I guess? To lighten the mood?" I asked, eyebrow raised.

"Yep!" grinned Tamaki. I love that guy. He seems stuck in a permanent state of hyper crossed with confused… or is the word oblivious?

"Where is he coming from? Whitewood?" asked Azalea, Tamaki nodded. I looked at them with a question mark practically stamped on my face. "Whitewood Academy is the new school not far from here. Much like this place but they like to say they have higher standards than money alone to let students in," Azalea explained swiftly. Okay… sounds interesting.

Not much happened after that. We chillaxed in the host club for a while, chatting to Honey and drinking tea. I love tea, green tea and lemon being my favourite.

It didn't feel like much time had past until it was time to head home… or rather wait outside in the cold snow for the limo. When I say cold, I actually mean _freezing._

Ehehehehe…hehehe

Azalea turned to look at me. "Did you hear that?" she asked, forehead scrunched up in confusion.

"Hear what?" I asked. She frowned and turned around looking for the source of whatever she had heard.

Heheheheee…eeeehheheheeee….hehe

"Okay, I swear I can hear someone lau-" A snowball hit her square on the back of the head. Her eyes blazed and she turned to face the soon to be new victim of revenge.

Hikaru and Kaoru stood laughing their asses off. I could almost feel the anger burning off of Azalea, and wanted to tell the twins to run. Until of course a snowball flew out of nowhere and smacked into the side of my head. I spun just in time to see Tamaki sprinting around the corner. Hikaru and Kaoru ran after him, still laughing.

I looked at Azalea and she looked at me. One nod and we were off. No_ way_ were they gonna win this snowball fight. This wasn't going to be an ordinary snow fight this was a war.

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**Please send us a message telling us what you think! It might encourage Ash to write faster, because my screaming at her doesnt seem to be doing much XD**

**Silvana**


	5. Chapter 4

**Azalea's POV**

I felt the cold, slushy snowball hit the back of my head. I felt the anger rise up inside me, I couldn't help it. I swivelled round and saw Kaoru and Hikaru laughing, I was about to do something stupid – I could tell, but before I got the chance, I saw a flash of white across my site and the sound of snow crumbling against Ardea's face, distracting me. We both looked towards the direction the snowball came from and saw Tamaki running off with Kaoru and Hikaru following him. We looked at each other and knew what each other were thinking.

_Snowball fight._

Running after them, we grabbed as much snow as we could and squashed it into snowballs ready to be thrown. As one of the twins turned to look back at us, Ardea took her chance and threw hers so it landed just under his chin. He looked shocked but the grin soon spread back across his face before he started to chase her round the field. I laughed as I passed them both and realised I was on my own. I stopped in my tracks to listen to my surroundings.

As I stood completely still, I waited for a warning signal, waiting, waiting... _crunch._ There it was!

I spun around to see Tamaki right by the wall, I threw my snowball at him but missed and hit the wall beside him.

"Damn." I muttered, before getting bombarded with multiple snowballs all on my back. "Ahh!" I screamed in a girly high pitched way, grasping at as much snow as I could grab and throwing it in the direction of my attacker. I knew I had hit them because the snow-bullets had stopped coming. I ran as fast as I could round the corner nearly tripping over and bumping into one of the twins.

He fell to the floor making one of those ridiculous 'Oomph' noises like he'd been hit with some huge weight. I didn't even get a chance to help him up because as soon as he hit the floor, Ardea, Hikaru and Tamaki came up behind us.

"Quick! Let's help Azalea bury Kaoru!" The twin that was clearly Hikaru yelled. Ardea and Tamaki quickly joined in, so I went along with it, burying Kaoru in the snow. Although when his teeth started chattering and his face started to go a little blue, I worried and secretly started taking away snow. Hopefully no-one noticed.

"Come on everyone, let's go inside for warm drinks while the girls wait for their limo to arrive!" Tamaki exclaimed in his usual commanding voice. Hikaru and Ardea went inside and Tamaki helped me dig out Kaoru.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get you buried in." I apologised but he just laughed softly as he shook the snow of his clothes.

"I would hope not, come on then, let's go in."

_**The day of the visit...**_

Today was the day that the guest from Whitewood Academy was coming to Ouran. Ardea and I had to show a complete stranger around the school for the day. Great. Why did I agree to this? Oh yes, because Kaoru told me I couldn't do it. I'm an idiot. Ardea barged into my room fidgeting in her dress with it all crinkled and left in awkward places. I tried to hide a snicker as she continued to pull her dress into place and fiddle with the sleeves.

"I HATE this school uniform. Why is it so different to the boys?" She asked in a waspish voice. I had no idea and instead just sighed. There was nothing we could do about it anyway.

"Can't Uncle Thomas get it changed?" She asked, now trying to straighten out the dress in the mirror – getting in the way as I straightened a piece of hair that was sticking up on end.

"Maybe, but we'd need some sort of design for the uniform and I can't draw to save my life." I said and Ardea slumped onto my bed. The whole dress making a swooshing noise as she did it.

"Me either."

At school, the twins were waiting outside for us with a boy in a red blazer. He was obviously the guest from Whitewood. We climbed out of the limo and took our place next to the twins so that they could introduce us to the person we would be showing round the school for the day.

"Good morning ladies." Hikaru greeted us and then gestured towards the boy. Being closer to him, I realised how tall he was. He towered over both Kaoru and Hikaru, but he was skinny. He had long brown hair that probably finished at his shoulders but had been done up in a ponytail that was gelled down so that . Urgh, I couldn't stand long hair like that on men. I just wanted to cut it a bit and style it to be something similar to the twins or Tamaki's. It was only after I'd evaluated his hair alone that I noticed that he had small black sunglasses on even though it was snowing. They were completely blacked-out so you couldn't see his eyes at all and he looked stupid. Especially since he was standing like he had something stuck up his backside.

He obviously had a lot of money, the clue was his gold Rolex watch. Or the rest of his designer attire. He looked over Ardea and I in a snobby, _I'm too good for you,_ kind of way and sighed like we were boring him. I didn't like him already. I glanced over at Ardea who had the same expression on her face as I did. Disbelief. How could he be so arrogant and conceited?

"Ardea, Azalea, this is Reginald T. Hagazika." HA! I saw Ardea hide a snigger as Hikaru announced this boys name. "Reginald, this is Ardea and Azalea."

"Lovely to meet you both," He announced proudly with a voice that sounded like he had two carrots stuck up his nose. He bowed extravagantly and went to kiss both of our hands in turn. "It is a shame that two beautiful ladies such as yourselves do not get to enjoy the opportunities that Whitewood Academy would offer you." He sighed and stood up straight once again. Well, he certainly changed his tune.

"We're going to show you around the school so we better get going soon." I told our new guest as the chime of the clock tower told us that we'd have to get to lessons – if we weren't showing round our guest, that is.

"So, why are you visiting Ouran if you hate this place so much?" Ardea asked him, it was a question I had been dying to ask myself, only I didn't want to talk to him. He got on my nerves just walking around with his she-male shoes on that clacked against the floor like high heels.

"Our Headteachers decided that it would be a good idea for Ouran and Whitewood Academy to collaborate and work together." He said in a monotone voice like this was common knowledge to everybody. Hmph. I think that's the worst idea that anyone has ever come up with. If all students were as stuck up as he was, I didn't want to be involved with any of them.

We showed Reginald around the rest of the school, his attitude changing very little as the day went on. Every time he spoke I gritted my teeth together and as far as I could tell, Ardea felt the same as I did. What a ponce.

At last we reached the entrance once again where we stood with him until his limo arrived. Before he stepped down to get in the car, he took one of my hands. I looked at him in shock and then disgust. I tried to pull my hands away but he held onto them tighter. His hands were sweaty. Ew.

'I wonder, would you like to go to dinner with me this weekend?' He asked and I heard Ardea snort behind me. I bit my lip to prevent myself from laughing but it didn't work. Reginald continued to look at me with hope filled eyes. As much as he was a snob, I still wanted to let him down gently.

"I'll think about it," I left him with that and he appeared to be satisfied, he got into his limo and I turned to look at Ardea who was shaking with silent laughter.

"Shut up." I said before slapping her arm and running inside.

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**Leave a comment for us on this chapter, thanks :D**

**Ash =3**


	6. Chapter 5

**Ardea's POV**

The host club sat in silence. We had spent the entire lunch time discussing what we were going to do about Azalea's "date." If she didn't go, there was no doubt that Reginald would destroy the relationship between Ouran and Whitewood. But if she went... well... ew.

Kyouya was all for Azalea going on the date. Tamaki, Honey and Mori felt bad, but agreed with Kyouya. The twins were on our side. But Azalea was slowly being persuaded by Kyouya.

"Think about it," Kyouya urged "You could be the reason that this school connects with the biggest other power in the whole of Japan. When talking about schools at least. No doubt if the date goes well he will deliver a good report to the school. If he delivers a bad one... well, there is no telling what he could do to Ouran. His father is a big power you know." Kyouya shrugged.

Azalea looked up. I could tell she was going to give in. I bumped her on the shoulder and gave her a sympathetic look.

"Okay," she sighed. Kaoru snorted. I looked over at his indignant expression, and Hikaru's amused one at his brother reaction. I could feel a smile stretch my face too. Did he like her?

Cute.

But she had to go on this date now. There was no backing out. Urgh.

"So... you think you will be alright? Do you need some advice from the host king?" asked Tamaki. I could understand why. Azalea had never had a boyfriends, or even been on a date. I guess there was never anyone she liked enough to say yes to, despite being asked.

"It's okay Tamaki, thats what I am here for. Boy advice should be my job," I laughed.

"Ehh? You know a lot about dating then?" asked Tamaki, surprised. I was tempted to hit him over the head.

"Of course you baka. Its a normal regular thing with us poorer people who don't have anything like inheritance to worry about." I rolled my eyes, then smiled to soften my sentence. "I have had loads of boyfriends back in England for goodness sake."

Hikaru jumped up suddenly and cried "What?" I looked at him startled. He quickly sat down, red faced.

I could feel my heart rate increase, but ignored it.

"So uh... I'll help you out tomorrow before you go," I said quickly changing the subject.

"Sure. Thanks," smiled Azalea.

The next day…

"Hurry uuuuup!" I moaned from my position on Azalea's bed. Azalea had been in the shower for ages. She was putting off the inevitable.

"You are not the one who has to go on a date with that sweaty, stuck-up weirdo!" she shouted back over the noise of the shower.

"But I am the one that has to help you get ready!"

"What makes you think I need help getting ready? It's like you think I have never been out before." I head a crash, as she climbed out of the shower, and rolled my eyes.

"I know you are perfectly capable, I just thought you would rather someone else do it for you. Plus you need some tips for surviving a bad date, or that temper might cost you the 'good report of the school," I replied, mimicking Kyouya's man-voice. Not a very good impression however.

"My temper," started Azalea, emerging from the bathroom wrapped in a towel, "Will have nothing to do with it, if he does nothing to upset me."

"But the slightest things upset you, my dear Zaylie." I smirked.

"You, my dear Ardea, have nothing to say. You are worse than me!" She grabbed her robe and went back into the bathroom as she put it on.

"That may be true. But my temper wont cost me the reputation of an entire school tonight," I replied jauntily.

"Good thing it wont either, you know nothing about the life in a rich school," she said curtly.

"Ouch. I'll let that slip because I know you are nervous."

Azalea sighed. "I'm sorry, it's just I feel under so much pressure to make the school look good." She stared at her toes, looking frustrated.

I stood up and gave her a quick hug. "It's okay, I am here to help you. So lets get to work," I beamed, pulling her over to her vanity table and sitting her down. "Okay, so I was thinking something dark and sexy?"

"But… this is Reginald we are talking about." She looked at me nervously.

"And we want to try and impress him, so we get a good report sent back to his school. Come on… it's not as if he's going to rape you or something… he is a _gentleman_," I replied, putting extra sarcasm on the gentleman part.

Azalea rewarded me with a smile.

"Okay," I continued, back to business, "Some smoky dark eyes, a little lip gloss and minimal foundation. If fact, no foundation."

"Why no foundation? I thought we was going all out?" asked Azalea.

"No need for it. Why cover up such flawless, beautiful pale skin with a bunch of chemicals? Its gorgeous!"

"You are only saying that because you have the same skin type," Azalea claimed, eyes narrowed.

"You are right about that. Don't squint your eyes, it will give you wrinkles," I teased.

"You sound like Tamaki, obsessed with your looks."

"Very true. Now shut up and let me work my magic," I said, spinning her chair around and picking up a brush.

After about an hour of careful work later, I had finished both her make-up and her hair. She had smoky eyes with lots of lengthening and darkening mascara. Her lips were tinted slightly redder and glossed over. Her hair hung down her back in long purplish ringlets. Perfect.

I stood back and admired my work.

"Now, we need a dress," I proclaimed, heading towards her walk in wardrobe. Azalea followed close behind me and watched as I began to raid through her clothes in search of something that wasn't a ball gown, suit or a short party dress.

We wanted something elegant, not granny-ish, but not revealing either.

Hidden at the back was something just perfect. I pulled it out and paraded around the room with it in triumph. It was a silky purple dress that dropped down to the knees, but came up at the side slightly in its flowing skirts. The top was a simple v-shape that would cover everything modestly with spaghetti straps. Just below the bust was a lighter shade of purple ribbon. It was beautiful and definitely elegant.

I threw the dress at Azalea and ordered her to get changed. Whilst she was changing I rummaged through her jewellery box for something that would match the dress. I came up with some little butterfly earrings, a swirled amethyst pendant with matching ring and a beady bracelet that tied together with a lilac ribbon.

Azalea stared in the mirror at herself when she was done.

"Wow… I look beautiful," she smiled.

"You do. Shame this is going to all be wasted on that Reginald twat." I laughed. Azalea turned and smiled at me.

"Thank you. But now I am thinking I need some of those tips you know so much about."

"Uhhh… well the truth I, there isn't a lot to it." I sighed. "When on a bad date you just have to make sure you're baiting him. Don't bring up any topics that might start of an argument. Agree with anything he says, even if you think it is wrong."

I watched her face grow increasingly horrified.

"Hey! No frowning yet! You just have to act for a night. Pretend you are having fun, and look forward to going home. Simple," I assured her. "Oh, and don't let him walk you to your car. Or your door. And don't give him any chance to sneak a kiss in. I recommend against that at all costs."

Azalea gave me a nervous smile, just as a bell rang downstairs.

"Okay, I will get the door, you say goodbye to Uncle Thomas."

I sprinted down the stairs to the door and opened it with a flourish and a bow. As I came up from my bow I had to hold in my laughter as I saw Reginald.

"Good evening, Mr Hagazika, I hope your ride here was pleasant?" I asked politely, but I couldn't keep the mocking smile away from my face.

"Where is Miss Azalea Wyatt," he asked rather rudely, looking past me into the house.

I glared at him, but he didn't notice.

"She is saying goodbye to Uncl- I mean Mr Wyatt."

He looked as horrible as ever. His hair was slicked back in what must have been about three bottles of hair gel, and the rest of its length braided. He wore a black suit with an orange tie. He was still wearing those god-awful sunglasses with the thick rims. I leaned to the side. Sure enough, it was dark outside. How on earth did he make it to the door without falling over something?

As I looked around him, I noticed someone else coming up the driveway. In fact, two people. Hikaru and Kaoru emerged into the night and I felt my eyebrows fly up towards my hairline. What on earth were they doing here?

"Hey Reginald! Nice night we are having, shame its hard to see behind those shades!" shouted Hikaru. Kaoru hit him on the arm and Reginald turned to glare at him, but didn't retort. They continued towards the door and walked in without invitation, Hikaru grinning like a proud idiot.

I didn't have time to question their appearance before Azalea cam down the stairs. He face was set in nerves. She set off towards the door, but stopped dead when she saw Kaoru and Hikaru. Her face flushed and she looked down at her feet. I noticed Kaoru's cheeks colour too.

Hikaru continued to smile… like an idiot.

I turned back to face Reginald, and he was almost drooling. Eww.

"Anyway!" I bellowed, breaking the awkward silence. "There is a date that must be attended immediately. Out of the door now, Zaylie."

She made her way towards the door.

"Bye Azalea, have a nice time!" sniggered Hikaru.

"Bye Zaylie… you look beautiful by the way," said Kaoru softly.

Azalea's face looked like a tomato, and all she could do was giggle and wave goodbye at them. Then she strode like a soldier going into battle towards the door, before taking Reginald's arm and striding out into the night.

"Good luck Zaylie!" I called into the darkness that swallowed them up.

I shut the door and turned to face the twins. "So what are you two doing here?" I asked them.

They both gave me cheesy grins.

"We thought you'd be lonely without Azalea," replied Hikaru. Then he glanced at Kaoru. "And _he_ wanted to see Azalea dressed up," he said with a wink.

Kaoru shot him a dirty look before retorting, "Well Hikaru wouldn't stop complaining about how he didn't want you to be alone. He was prepared to come here on his own to keep you company."

I felt my cheeks burn and I smiled. Hikaru looked as if he wanted to hit his brother.

"Well, thanks I guess. I suppose you both better some upstairs. Or maybe we can go and make some cake… I want cake." My mind drifted into a sweet daydream of iced cakes.

"Cake sounds good," replied Hikaru.

"Lead the way," finished Kaoru.

I headed off towards to kitchen with the twins in tow.

Covered in flour and still giggling from the mini cake ingredient war we had just had I began to think. Looks like this night wasn't just going to be spent sitting alone in my room.

And it meant I had other people to help me interrogate Azalea when she returned. I hope she had at least a bearable time.

* * *

**Sorry that this is very late, I was having trouble with my computer, but it seems to be fixed now. I apologize if there are any mistakes, Ash hasn't read this yet, and I am very lazy, so I don't proof read. Don't forget to review!**

**Silvana  
x**


	7. Chapter 6

**Azalea's POV**

I cannot believe that my first date would be with that smarmy smarmaduke smarm-head. He made me feel sick, and I was desperate to sort his hair out. All it would need was a little 3 inches cut off the end and all that gel gone and it would look so much better! Those sunglasses would have to come off too, I didn't even know the colour of his eyes.

I took his arm with much hesitation and walked swiftly to where his car had been parked. We got in and the driver took us to the restaurant. We'd barely been in the car a minute when Reginald put his hand on my knee. Alarm bells rang in my head! What the hell was I supposed to do here? I wanted to throw his hand off my knee – maybe even into the next window. But I couldn't. So I shrugged him off and crossed my knees instead.

"So, what restaurant are you taking me to?" I asked, trying to create a conversation. Reginald, however seemed uninterested in talking, but I smiled sweetly through gritted teeth and he eventually told me.

"We'll be at the private table on the balcony of J'aime les tortues, for the perfect scenery for a perfect lady such as yourself." He announced and I gagged a little, trying to continue with my smile which probably looked more like a forced grin. We sat in silence for the rest of the journey with me twiddling my thumbs in the awkward silence as Reginald stared at my legs. What a pervert.

"We're here Sir." I heard the driver say, and Reginald nodded. He got out and lent a hand to help me get out, but I refused it and climbed out myself – probably looking very unladylike. He raised his eyebrows but let it slide, putting his hand on the small of my back as he tried to walk me to the door. I sped up to get his hand off me but he sped up as I did. We were led to our table by a waiter who looked at us with a weird expression. I only worked out why he was looking at us so strangely when we were led to our private balcony table. It's outside. While it's snowing. Does he have some kind of wish to create the worst date possible? I shivered as we stepped outside and the cold hit me. I forgot to bring a jacket. Crap. Reginald laughed as he saw me shiver and I watched him button up his own jacket. We sat down and looked through the menu. The prices were exceptionally high, I decided I was going to go for the most expensive thing on the menu.

"Ooh everything looks delicious!" I said in the most convincing voice I could manage even though it all sounded revolting. I caught eye on something called matsutake mushrooms which cost 83,864 Yen. Reginald better be extremely rich. I don't even like mushrooms but it was worth it to see him dish out for the meal at the end. For my main I ordered Wagyu Steak which I knew full well was something I disliked.

"Are you sure madam? This steak has an acquired taste." The waiter warned me, but I ordered it anyway.

"That's fine." I saw panic flash in Reginald's eyes as he saw the price. 234,821 yen. The waiter took our menu's and Reginald leaned over and touched my hand. I fought every instinct in my body not to rip my hand away from under his in disgust.

"Excuse me Lady Azalea, I have a call to make." He said before leaving the table with his mobile phone in his hand. I pulled some cleansing wipes out of my bag and wiped his sweat off my hand. Disgusting. As I waited for Reginald to return I stood up and looked over the balcony. The door clicked behind me and I heard the waiter speak once again.

"Excuse me madam, I noticed that you were cold and remembered the outdoor heater we have available. Ever so sorry we forgot to bring it before." He apologised and I smiled at him.

"Thank you very much."

He left the heater on and I could feel it warming me up as I stared out at all the buildings lit up below. Where had Reginald got to? He had been on the phone a while. Probably trying to convince Daddy that he should let him spend more money.

"Azalea." I heard him whisper in my ear as he stood behind me. It sent shivers down my spine. I turned around to move but he moved in quickly, putting both arms around me, pinning me against the balcony. I squirmed trying to move out of his hold but he gripped both my arms tightly. I could feel my arms burning where the friction was being created.

"Reginald! Let go of me!" I screamed, hoping that maybe someone inside would hear, but I guess the balcony is private for a reason. In the spur of the moment I thought of my options. I stamped on his foot with my heel and he leapt back with a yelp. I only had seconds to run away before he would grab me again. Quickly I threw my drink down him and ran out of the restaurant, desperately hoping that he wasn't behind me. I couldn't get in his car, the driver wouldn't leave without him and I didn't have time to convince the driver to take me home alone. I ran as far away from the building for as long as I could manage. Adrenaline pumped through my veins and tears streamed down my face. I had no idea where I was when I finally stopped. It was pitch black – the only reflection the snow.

I slumped onto the ground, feeling the snow soak my dress and make it stick to my skin. Pulling my knees to my chest, I thought about how I had ruined everything for Ouran Academy. I was supposed to be creating a relationship between the two schools but instead I have probably destroyed everything. Kyouya and the others would be so annoyed with me. They had been drumming it into me about how important it was for the two schools to be united. How was I even going to get home? I squinted to try and look at my surroundings but I saw nothing. All I knew was that I had turned left from the restaurant and had run in a straight line. That was no help.

I stood up and heard something rip behind me. Turning round I saw a scrap of purple silk attached to the heel of my shoe. I pulled the back of my dress round to the front and felt the chill against my bum. Great. So I'm completely lost, with no coat, a soaking wet dress and a huge rip in the back of it.

My phone! I could ring Ardea and get her to come pick me up – if she could find me, that is. I paced backwards and forwards as I tried to get my phone out of my bag. Dialling the number through numb fingers I stumbled over them and had to backspace multiple times. Finally I managed it and pressed the little green phone. I waited as it rung until finally I heard Ardea's voice. She was giggling and laughing – at least someone was having a good time. Someone laughed in the background – Hikaru? Maybe Kaoru? No. Definately Hikaru.

"Zaylie? How's the date going?" She asked, still trying to stifle a giggle. I opened my mouth to speak but my throat closed up and everything came out choked. I heard Ardea's tone suddenly become one of concern.

"What's going on, Z?" She asked again, more urgent this time.

"I – I – I'm lost." I sobbed.

* * *

**There we go, this took me hours so someone please review :D**

**Ash =3**


	8. Chapter 7

Ardea's POV

"What's going on Z?" I asked, a panicky feeling growing in my chest.

"I - I - I'm lost," she sobbed. I clutched the phone harder.

"What do you mean? Where is Reginald?" I asked. The fear in my voice was clear, and Hikaru was watching me with a frown.

"I – I ran away. He tried to… to… touch me." She burst into tears on the other end of the phone.

"Where are you? I am on my way." I jumped into action, pulling my shoes on and waving at Hikaru and Kaoru to do the same.

"That's the problem… I don't know. I just ran away." I could hear the fear in her voice and it made me feel cold to the bones.

"Hmmm…" suddenly an idea snapped into my head. "Turn your virtual phone map on, I can see where you are on my friends list."

"Right, yes, I'll do it now… Thank you so much Ardea," she still sounded upset, but there was hope in her voice.

"What are friends for? I'll be there as quick as I can." I hung up and turned to Hikaru and Kaoru, who were looking at me questionably.

"Do you think your limo could take us somewhere?" I asked them. "Zaylie seems to be stranded and lost."

About a 10 minutes later…

The map on my phone was pretty good, and I was almost certain we were now on the same street as Azalea. I stared out of the windows, trying to catch a glimpse of her.

About half-way down the street a flash of purple on the pavement caught my eye. Before I could think about I had leapt out of the car, even though it was still moving. I stumbled and twisted my ankle, but continued to run towards the person in purple, hugging her knees. Azalea looked up at me as I ran towards her full speed, then the next minute we were hugging and crying.

"You idiot!" I screamed. "You could have been kidnapped, or raped, or – or- or… ARGH!" I hugged her tighter.

"I am so, so sorry Ardea," she whispered, her voice raspy. She looked terrible. Her hair was a mess, her make-up streaked in teary lines and her dress gaped at the back.

"Gosh Z, you are freezing!" I complained.

Kaoru stepped forward and put his jacket around Azalea's shoulders, and she smiled up at him gratefully.

"Come on, lets go home," I said, pulling her up.

For the entire ride home Azalea sat shivering. I nearly ripped my fingers off in frustration and worry.

Kaoru sat in silence, whilst his brother tried to crack jokes to lighten the mood. I could only smile at him in gratification for his attempt.

As soon as we were inside I sent Azalea to have a warm bath, and she headed upstairs without a complaint at being ordered around.

I turned to Hikaru and Kaoru for and thanked them for the use of their limo.

"No problem. Anything for a friend," smiled Hikaru. Kaoru just nodded tightly.

"I guess I should go check on Azalea. I'll call you tomorrow with an update."

They nodded and quickly left. I sent for some hot chocolate in forethought. By the time I had headed upstairs Azalea was out of the bath, shivering by the fire in her room.

"It's cold in here," she whispered without looking away from the flickering flames. Her blank stare scared the life out of me. What on earth had happened on that date?

I sat close next to her, just as a maid came in with the hot chocolate I had ordered. I took it from her with thanks, and she left without a word. I handed one of the mugs to Azalea and it shook in her hands as she sipped it.

"What happened, Z?" I asked softly. She turned to face me an began to tell of the whole ordeal. The horror grew inside me as she told me of the smarmy Reginald and his touchy feely hands. There was no doubt he would pay for this. The terror that had been building inside me morphed and began to burn. Whether it is karma or me who hands out the punishment, the results will be the same. How dare the dirty pervert do this to my friend.

I sent Azalea to bed, paler than usual, and still shivering. There was nothing I could do but sit and wait out the sleepless night, watching Azalea sleep, to make sure she was okay.

The next day the sky was overcast and the air cold. It had snowed more in the early hours of the morning, and there would be no driving around for anyone today. I didn't wake Azalea up, she need her rest. Instead, I began to clean to rid myself of some of the excess energy that burned inside me. I straightened my normally messy room in to military neatness.

I still had far too much energy, so I headed outside, deciding against my coat, but pulling my warm snow boots on. I began to clear the snow from the walkway. I don't know how long I was at it before my phone began to ring. I glanced at the caller ID before picking it up.

"What's up Kyouya?" I asked.

"It seems someone has received threatening calls from Reginald at Whitewood Academy, concerning Ouran," began Kyouya. "He seems to think that we are, and I quote, 'a bunch of raving lunatics with no common sense.' Do you happen to know what any of this is about?" he asked.

"Well of course I do!" I almost screamed. "It was that stupid date that he made Azalea go on. He tried to touch her, she didn't want to be touched, and she defended herself appropriately."

"I see…" replied Kyouya mysteriously. "Thank you for your time," he said politely before hanging up. I screamed at the dial tone in outrage. Great, so now the pervy wanker was spreading crap about Ouran. He was really ripping my nerves apart. How could one person make me so damn angry?

I began to vent some steam again, viciously throwing up pile after pile of snow. By the time a maid was sent out to drag me inside, it was dark. I was shoved into my room. It was five minutes before I burst out and into Azalea's room.

She was sitting up, her face as pale as a sheet. Her breath came out in short painful rasps. I felt my heart hurt. She looked so ill.

She smiled up at me as I approached.

"How are you feeling?" I asked in a whisper.

"Like a billion yen," she began to laugh, but it dissolved into a coughing fit. I tapped her on the back lightly, but her coughs didn't let up.

Panic began to rise in my throat. Sometime wasn't right.

"QUICK! SOMEONE, COME HELP!" I hollered at the top of my lungs.

A maid came rushing in and began to take Azalea through deep breaths. Her coughs began to slow and finally stop. Her breathing evened out and she smiled up at me reassuringly.

"Don't worry, I am fine. Just a cold."

"Sure. Just a cold," I replied uncertainly.

Then Azalea's eyes rolled up into her head and she fell unconscious.

* * *

**This one is specially dedicated to Mangagirl97 who very dramatically asked for the next chapter to be released tonight, so here it is, specially written in about two hours flat. Hope you enojoy it! Dont forget to review! Now, it's late and I'm off to bed!**

**Silvana  
x**


	9. Chapter 8

**I'd like to just clear this up now. One person writes Ardea's POV and ANOTHER person writes Azalea's POV. BurnLobelia is two people – Ash and Silvana. :D**

**Azalea's POV**

I wasn't sure what was going on, I could hear a faint scream somewhere far in the distance but it was muffled. Everything in my head felt hazy, there was nothing but a big blur - like a dream but less animated and more claustrophobic. I had so many questions, where had I just been? I swear I had been with Ardea? Someone else, a nurse? A maid? Whoever they were they had been helping me with a coughing fit. After that I was here. But where was here?

It was nowhere familiar or comforting but it no-where ominous either – and I was all alone. The cloudy voices got louder as I listened to them and I started to recognise one. It was deep and almost choked. I felt my hand tingle and warm up like someone was holding it and if I could have smiled, I would. It wasn't painful here, it was nice.

It didn't take my very long to work out that the deep voice and the hand belonged to my Dad. He only spoke once – but it wasn't clear what he said as he was talking through tears. What state had I left everyone in? I wasn't gone clearly, but I might as well have been. He stayed the whole night, only letting go of my hand once – I knew this because as soon as he let go, the tingling sensation in my arm stopped.

I must have been in there a while and voices changed over time. Some higher, some lower. Some more frequent than others. When people I recognised started to talk to me I concentrated, trying to remember who they were. Ardea was one who visited often. When she did speak, she spoke quietly and it was much more difficult to hear her than it was when my dad talked to me. He didn't speak often though, he just sat there. I knew he was there even though I couldn't see him.

Kaoru and Hikaru visited once. Hikaru spoke a lot, asking lots of questions and wanting to see if Ardea would visit me. But Kaoru sat there with the occasional 'hmm' to answer Hikaru. I knew it was him because of boyish, higher voice. Plus if Hikaru was with another person, it was likely to be Kaoru.

Ardea often talked about school and how everyone was asking for me and wanted to know if I was alright when she visited. I wish I knew. I wasn't even entirely sure where I was, but I couldn't move, I was trapped here. When Ardea nodded off to sleep, I imagined finally being able to talk to her. She could tell me what had been going on, where I had been and we could go back to normal, rather than this strange routine that had been going on for so long.

_I was sitting across from Ardea, it was warm outside. Rays of sunshine shone down on my skin, filling me with a full-fulling happiness. The picnic table we were sitting on was on a field by the school and rich people were in and out of their limos in the scene behind us. Tamaki came to sit beside us – he didn't say anything but his normal grin was plastered across his face. The field was filled with slightly too long green grass covered in a sea of daisies and getting up from my bench I did two cartwheels. The freedom I felt as my hair went wild instead of being plastered to the sides of my face and I could move about as much as I wanted was thrilling. I couldn't laugh for joy, but I would have done anything to be able to. _

_A sudden thought hit me, what was I doing here? Where was the usual empty world I had lived in where I could only feel and hear? I stopped. Looking round, Ardea and Tamaki were saying something in hushed undertones so I could not hear them. Moving closer and sitting back down didn't help me to hear any better either._

_Opening my mouth to speak, I wanted to ask what was going on, but before I got the chance. Tamaki interrupted me. _

"_We best go Ardea, we don't want to be late for school."_

_Then they disappeared._

I was all alone in my dark world once again, and this time it seemed more scary – Almost cold. The voices of the real Ardea and Tamaki outside my imagination and this world were leaving too. Why couldn't I reach out to them? I didn't want them to leave – not to be alone again.

I wanted to cry, but I couldn't even do that.

They were gone, I was motionless. Everything was the same.

Another long period of time went by but no voices came to talk to me. Not Ardea, not my dad. Nobody came to see me. I didn't know why and the loneliness was starting to eat away at me. Without their voices, I couldn't visualise me trying to speak to someone like Ardea or Kaoru or my dad. Even the sad part where they would leave me alone without saying goodbye or speaking to me was worth it if I got to put a face to the voice.

I could feel when I got weaker, when I was close to death. It wasn't frightening, more a matter-of-fact. I could choose to fight it and regain the little strength I had or I could succumb to it and leave everything behind. Despite my ever growing loneliness and moments when I felt that I should just let go, I continued to fight it. There were people who still needed me – whether they knew it or not. I wasn't 100% sure that anyone needed me, but I knew that no-one wanted me dead. That spurred me on. The thought of my Dad crying for me – he had only just lost his brother a month ago, he couldn't lose me too and Ardea had lost her dad - we had become so close, I couldn't do that to her either.

A nurse sat by me once, she told me that the snow had stopped anyone visiting me but it was letting up now, and I should have someone come see me soon. I was glad to know what was going on – even if no-one knew if I could hear or not. It was also a relief to know the reason for my lack of company was because no-one could get here.

It wasn't long before the dark space I had been in for so long was fading. It wasn't like the sensation of dying – it was lighter, like I was regaining strength for once rather than being drained of it. I couldn't tell if there were people around me at this point. It sort of felt like I was asleep at this point, like I was back in my room and I was laying in bed. I _felt_ like I was laying in bed. But all I could usually feel was a tingle when someone touched me. Although I felt lighter, I didn't feel better. I felt worse. Everything around me was swirling, spinning round and round. My whole body – which I could now tell was laying in a bed, was so uncomfortable and stiff that it ached. I didn't mind this because it was such an abatement to feel anything again.

I twitched my toes to get them moving to which was responded with a squeal from a very high pitched person.

"She's moving! Nurse! Nurse! NURSE! Come quickly!"

It was Ardea's voice. I heard a cheer from someone else and said person took my hand and kissed it. Even with my eyes closed, I took this opportunity to do something I had been waiting to do for God knows how long.

I cried.

To hear their voices crystal clear and not have to concentrate to hear what their saying couldn't have made me any happier. I probably looked like an idiot crying with my eyes closed. I didn't care. I had never felt more alive. I had to open my eyes and look at everything around me – to properly see for the first time. When I tried, the light hurt my head. It seared through the darkness that had been covering me and when I could finally see, I saw two ecstatic faces.

I smiled up at them, probably half dazed. But nonetheless a smile.

"Hi." I croaked, hearing my ugly harsher voice. The nurse made some check ups to make sure I was OK and then left me to talk to my dad and Ardea in private. Everyone sat in silence until the door to the room was completely shut.

"How are you?" My dad asked. I swear he had looked less _old_ last time I had seen him. I couldn't quite get the words out, but I nodded and smiled. He laughed half-heartedly but I could see in his eyes that he was happy.

"You've been out for a month." Ardea explained and then I realised what had happened to me. I had been in a coma. It was the most uncomfortable and lonely thing that had ever brought me so close to death and... it all made sense now. I hadn't been able to move or properly feel but I had been able to hear pretty much everything being said to me. But a month – that was so long. No wonder my dad looked so aged. Having your daughter on the verge of death for a month is a long time to be stressed. Ardea didn't look to healthy either. She was paler than normal but only so she looked run down.

"That long?" I finally managed to bring out. Ardea nodded and brought her bag to her lap. She rummaged through it until finally got something out of her bag. An album of pictures.

"We made this of the entire month to show you what's been going on while you've been in hospital." She said as she flicked through the pages, showing pictures of projects done at school and the continuing of the host club. But thinking of Ouran made me think of the trouble I had probably caused with Whitewood. I pushed it to the back of my mind and tried to think of something – anything else that would make me feel better.

"When can I get out of here?" I asked but by the expressions on their faces it wasn't any times soon.

"A week, maybe two at the most. Just to check everything's ok." My dad explained solemnly. I didn't like it, but I could see why it had to be done. Nobody wanted another episode of that – especially me.

"Here," Ardea said, handing me a card. "Everyone at school signed it for you – and Kaoru bought you some flowers." She pointed to the bedside table that had a beautiful hydrangea centrepiece on it. They were lilac and white and the prettiest things that I'd seen in a month – possibly longer. I took the card and read all the names. Everyone in our class had signed it, as had most of my friends in other classes – even people I had probably only met once had signed it. Placing it by the flowers on the table, I yawned and my dad laughed.

"You've spent a month asleep and now you're tired? Get some sleep." He kissed my forehead and moved all the hair away from my neck. I could've sworn he looked panicked, but I was too tired to ask him what was wrong.

**That's Chapter 8, it pretty much took me 4 ½ hours to do because I'm such a slow writer AND it's officially my longest chapter. Please review and subscribe.. and that's it :D **

**Ash =3**


	10. Chapter 9

**Ardea's POV**

Azalea slept for the rest of the day, but nobody cared. I couldn't feel any more relieved that she was now awake. All off the stress that had been building up in me for the entire month she was out had mostly evaporated when she woke up.

When she collapsed we rushed her to the hospital as fast as we could. When we got there the doctors told us that she had slipped into a coma. They told us it was most probably caused by her extended exposure to the freezing outside temperatures, and she contracted Hypothermia. Her heartbeat had slowed a considerable amount and her body had just thrown itself into a coma for protection.

Now that she was awake, the doctors needed to check to make sure she hadn't lost any abilities such as speech or movement because of the coma. So far it was looking very promising and she should be out soon.

So much had already happened in a month that I had to tell her about.

A week later…

I sat on my bed with Azalea opposite me. She had a lot more colour in her cheeks and all of her reactions were perfectly fine. She was still a little weak and got confused sometimes, but the doctors had warned us of this. We were laughing at the photo album I had given her, and explaining every memory.

"So… what is this one about?" she asked, pointing at a picture of me and Tamaki at what looked like a fair, joint expressions of anger.

"Heh… this is where things are no longer quite so fantastic," I began. "After… uhm… you know, your date with Reginald," Azalea visibly winced, "well he has decided to make things slightly difficult for Ouran. He has been holding regular opening days at Whitewood Academy and sending out invitations to all of the students at Ouran. Lots have them have been going, but nobody has transferred… yet. I went to check it out one day with Tamaki and Kyouya. I must admit, the school is very impressive."

A look of horror crossed Azalea's face. "You're not thinking of moving there are you?"

I shook my head and she relaxed.

"His campaign isn't going wonderfully for him at the moment. The Ouran students seem to be loyal to us. But I don't think he is giving up anytime soon. Looks like you really upset him… good on you," I smiled.

Azalea looked up at me with sad eyes. I guess missing a whole month of your life is a scary thing. Things would be better when she went back to school and saw all of her friends. She would find that another three had joined her group in class too. Hikaru and Kaoru were now officially sitting with us, and so was Nora. She had found a talent in fashion design, which had earned her a little interest from some people who began to finally see she was a nice person, after treating her as an outcast.

So many things had developed without her, and it made me feel sad thinking that in the end, things can go on without you, no matter who you are.

We sat for a long time, me trying to give her back a month of memories she should have had. We laughed. We cried. But in the end I couldn't shake the feeling that it just wasn't enough for her. It would be better when she finally could go back to school.

Later on Hikaru and Kaoru stopped by the house to see us. Kaoru looked a million times better as soon as he saw Azalea too. He must have been so worried too. Hikaru and me had gotten closer as his brother became more distant from him.

We all sat in the mini-cinema and watched a movie, eating as much popcorn and chocolate as we could stuff in our mouths. Things seemed so much different now that Azalea was back. As if the gaping whole in our little group of friends had finally been filled.

**The next day…**

Today was Azalea's first day back at school after her coma. In the morning it had practically been a mad rush to see who could hug her first. She spent most of the day with her other friends, quite understandably, and so I spent most of the day with my ipod plugged in. The only person that really came and spoke to me every now and again was Nora, who was showing me some designs for a new school uniform for the females of this school. I had to admit that it looked fantastic. She would find out next week of they accepted it. Good luck to her I guess.

The host club was in their room, business as always. I would normally go and see them, but today I just wanted to be alone and have some time to think. I needed to de-stress now that I knew Azalea was definitely okay. Its terrifying wondering for every minute of your life if you best friend is ever going to make up. It hadn't shown my stress outwardly until now. Now was my time to recover, as much as it was Azalea's.

At lunch I sat outside under one of the cherry trees. The snow had mostly melted, but the icy layer it left behind still made the trees glitter and sparkle in the winter sunlight. It was a beautiful sight that not many people noticed because they were all locked up in the warm. It was freezing outside, but I had wrapped up and it was worth it.

Someone walking past caught my eye. They were not part of Ouran. They were wearing the red uniform from Whitewood Academy. He was geeky looking thing, but he wasn't small. He was a rather podgy. I got up slowly and began to follow him. He hadn't seen me yet, so hopefully I could catch what he was up to at our school during school hours.

I followed him all the way around to the back of the school without being noticed. Sometimes he was walking normally, as if afraid he was being watched, an the next he would attempt some weird ninja/spy move that more than once resulted in him falling on his face. What an idiot.

Then, as he approached one of the windows he pulled out a camera, and suddenly I knew what he was doing. He was a spy for Whitewood. What a little fucker.

He peered through the window before lifting the camera up and taking a quick snap of whatever was going on inside. He moved to another window. And began taking pictures there too.

I could feel white-hot rage flash through me. My blood boiled in my veins and I clenched my fists tight. How _dare_ he. This was Reginald's doing. First he almost kills Azalea, and now he is trying to get dirt on Ouran to shut it down! Reginald T. Hagazika was a selfish fish-lipped whore. Yes, whore.

"Hey, you!" I shouted at the Whitewood student, with no attempt to hide the fury in my voice. The student spun around to face me, the colour in his face draining. He shoved the camera into his pocket and began to run.

I sprinted after him with everything I had in me. As I neared him I made a grab for his blazer and he squeaked in terror. Then I lunged at him and we both fell to the floor in a heap.

Immediately I pinned his hands down and glared at him.

"What the hell are you doing?" I demanded. He shook his head, not speaking. I wanted to hit his fat face.

"What. Are. You. Doing?" I repeated, even more harshly. Then his wrists wiggled out from under my hands and I was being flung over onto my back. I struggled to get back up, but a fist flew straight into my chest and knocked all the air from my lungs. I lay on the grass gasping for air, having to watch the little spy run for his life while I was incapacitated.

The breath eventually returned to my lungs, but the Whitewood student was long gone. I stood up and brushed of my now grass-stained dress.

I needed to talk to Azalea and the host club. Something was about to threaten the school and we couldn't just stand back and let it. Something had to be done.

* * *

**Well this one started off as the slowest most boring thing ever, so I apologize. There just wasnt anything to write about in this chapter, but hopefully the next one will be a lot better. Dont forget to review, it makes us update faster, and with the xmas holidays starting on Thursday, we will have a lot more writing time, so we may regularly get several chapters out a day, but we wont be releasing anything on xmas eve, xmas, boxing day or new years. There will hopefully however be an xmas special which me and Ash will actually go to one of our houses so we can write together :D**

**Silvana  
x **


	11. Chapter 10

**Azalea's POV**

It was great to be back to normal. Returning to school I saw how much things had changed since I had been gone. Hikaru and Kaoru were sitting with us which I wouldn't complain about, they were our friends after all, but I did wonder about who Haruhi sat with now. Nora had also joined us, I didn't know her but everyone had always thought she was weird. Ardea had been a bit distant the day I went back, I felt bad but I wanted to catch up with everyone.

It wasn't all good though. Reginald really had it out for Ouran, open days for Ouran students to have access to Whitewood and apparently see how much better Whitewood would be for them. Ardea had told me about what she had seen at school the day after. A Whitewood student taking pictures of Ouran. It couldn't be good whatever it was.

The whole of the host club were interested to hear about what Ardea had to say, especially Tamaki. His eyes lit up as he thought of different ideas of what would be going on. Luckily, I think Kyouya calmed him down although I wasn't entirely sure how. Ever since I had got out of the hospital I had been scared of Kyouya. I know he blames me for everything that's happened to do with Reginald and his attack on Ouran. I know I may have over-reacted a bit at the restaurant, but Reginald was disgusting and when he tried to feel me up, I panicked. A lot. I had agreed to a date with him, not _that. _

But anyway.

Some little chubby Whitewood Academy student had been sent to take pictures of Ouran. What could he possibly need pictures of the school for? Plus, they really should of sent a spy that would be able to run away. Not one that could be pinned to the ground easily. He gave could punches according to Ardea (much to the displeasure of Hikaru) but still. Usually Kyouya knew everything about the school, but even he seemed stumped about this one.

We spent all day thinking of the possible answers, but nothing came to mind. Even when Ardea and I got home and could discuss it together without teachers telling us to concentrate we came up with nothing. At dinner, Dad brought up the feud between Whitewood and Ouran just as we had given up.

"Mr Suoh was telling me of the problems that Whitewood has been causing for Ouran. You don't know why this would be do you?" Dad asked. Ardea and I shot quick warning glances at each other. What to say?

"Errr, no," was the first thing that popped out of my mouth. What an idiot. Plus I sounded like a commoner.

I excused myself from the table and went to get my mind off all the problems with Ouran. On a more positive note, Christmas was nearing. I had already bought Dad a present, although I had had some trouble. What to give a man with the money to buy himself everything? Although I suppose the same could be said for me. In the end I bought him a new suit, wallet and briefcase. Something he could actually use.

Ardea was more difficult to buy for. She hadn't been living with us long and in the time she had, I'd learned lot's about her personality – but not what she liked to do. I had bought her a masquerade mask for the annual masquerade ball at Ouran, but I'd liked it so much I'd kept it for myself. I bought her a couple of things to wear and a necklace, but it didn't seem like much. I had to get her to tell me about hobbies she used to have without her realising that I wanted to get her something for Christmas.

Not only did I have Ardea as an addition to my friends this year. I also had the host club to buy for. I had absolutely no idea what to get any of them whatsoever. Except Honey. I bought him a small house made entirely out of sweets, chocolate and cake. I got the feeling he might like that.

I wonder what Ardea got me for Christmas? That would be interesting to see!

The next school day was uneventful lessons-wise. In fact, because of the snow, barely any teachers came into school so Ardea and I spent most of our time in the Host Club.

"I have a brilliant idea!" Tamaki exclaimed as he twirled around the room excitedly.

"What would that be ?" The twins asked in unison.

"It's called Secret Santa. Apparently commoners play it all the time at Christmas. What happens is, you all put your name on a piece of paper and put it in a bowl, then we all take a name out without telling anyone else and get a gift for that one person! But you can't tell anyone! It's a secret."

Bless him, he looked so enthusiastic about his idea that I couldn't tell him I'd already bought one present. I'd just have to hope that I got Honey. I hoped that I could still give Ardea her presents I'd already bought her because she's my family, otherwise that would be a real pain in the ass.

So, we did as we were told and each pulled out a names. Some people looked cheerful and others... not so cheerful. Ardea looked happy enough, as did Mori (although he always made that face) and Kyouya. I took my turn and looked at my piece of paper. Unfolding the piece of paper I saw a very nice writing that almost seemed feminine.

_Tamaki_

Great.

**Sorry this took so long, and sorry it's so short. I've been strangely busy lately and I couldn't find a lot to write for this chapter. Hopefully Silvana will do the next chapter quickly so I can do a nice long chapter because I'm busy Thursday...arrghhh**

**I think Silvana may have murdered me if I didn't get it out today :')**

**So please review :D**

**Ash =3**


	12. Chapter 11

**Ardea's POV**

Of course Tamaki would want to do Secret Santa. I should have never showed him that 'commoner' Christmas film… But fortunately the person I pulled out of the hat was Honey. It easy to buy for the one obsessed with sweet things.

It always used to be easy to buy for my old friends, too. I had been thinking about Christmas for months and what I would buy Azalea, because Secret Santa or not, she was family. I had to buy something for Uncle Thomas too, who was a case of 'he has everything he could wish for because he is rich.'

I didn't want to ask Uncle Thomas for money for his own present, so I got a weekend job at a little café a couple of months ago. I was thinking ahead for once in my life. Nobody knew about my job. I made sure my hours were always when Azalea had singing lessons, which Uncle Thomas always attended with her. I wanted things to be a surprise.

I had been at my job for about two months now. I had earned about 8,374.10 ¥ which I was hoping would be enough if I managed to find some cheaper stores to shop in. But I think the worse thing is trying to decide what to buy for my family. Perhaps I could buy Uncle Thomas some aftershave… Azalea might like a gift card? No, how un-special is that! It had to be something fun. A movie? No, very un-original. A concert?

Yes… Her own one!

Azalea is a fantastic singer! She would jump at this chance. I would invite everyone she knew and get together a small band, her on vocals and me on guitar. I had been playing since I was very young at school, and one year my friends even got together and brought me my own electric guitar. I had it stored under my bed at the moment. I would have to send my friends in England a video of the concert. E-mail just wasn't enough to catch up on when you lived across the country, and I did miss my old friends, despite having great new ones. But then there was Harry…

I shook that thought out of my head before it could continue. Harry was my old boyfriend who never did seem to want to let go. It wasn't even as if I could just slap him and tell him to get lost like the badass girls do in movies. If I did that I think I would come out in the worse side of the fight. It was putting it lightly to say he had anger issues.

But no, I refuse to think of him when I am supposed to be thinking of happy Christmas times. I wonder if I could set up a place in Ouran to have her concert. Yes! This was the perfect plan! She would be so happy. I could feel the evil grin on my face already! Which was instantly swiped off my face when I noticed my classmates staring at me. I was in my English lesson.

"Ardea! Get out of my classroom right now if you are not going to pay attention!" screamed the teacher. I felt my cheeks flame.

"Uh, sorry sir! It won't happen again!" I heard A few people around the classroom sniggering.

"I know you are advanced in this but it doesn't mean you can't listen. Leave now," he demanded.

With a sigh I got to my feet and left the classroom. It was a ridiculous lesson for me anyway. I _knew_ everything they were teaching. You can't try to teach someone who has lived in England her whole life how to say 'cat' again and not expect her to get bored.

So, sitting on the floor in the corridor, I went back to my daydreaming. I would talk to Uncle Thomas tonight about getting permission from Mr Suoh to use a part of Ouran. Lunch would be a perfect time to go to one of the actual music rooms (not occupied by the host club) and get together the remaining band members I needed. Then I had to think about invites… and lighting… and food… and drink… and a whole manner of other things. This was going to be hard work. But hopefully it would be worth it. Azalea had a whole months worth of things to catch up on, and I wanted to help her.

**The next day (Saturday)…**

I walked down the busy high street, wondering where to start. Now that the plans for Azalea were sorted, after the help of Uncle Thomas and some of the music students, the only people left to buy for was my uncle himself and Honey. Honey, I would be able to sort out later when I went to work at half one. Uncle Thomas was the one I was shopping for at the moment, and I honestly had no idea what to get him!

Surely there was a simple solution. I needed guy help.

"Hey Ardea!" called a familiar voice. Speak of the devil, and he shall appear. Hikaru was just coming out of a shop, his arms full of bags. I smiled at him glad he was there. Help has arrived in the nick of time

"Sup Hikaru. Xmas shopping?" He nodded. "Without Kaoru?" I gasped dramatically. "Shock, horror! Has the world come to an end?" I teased. He glared at me playfully

"Well I cant very well go shopping for Christmas presents for my brother if he is with me now can I!" he retorted. I laughed.

"Want some help with your bags? You seem to be struggling," I commented, eyeing the bundles of things he was carrying.

"That," he sighed giving me an adorable smile, "would be fantastic."

We spent the rest of the day going in and out of shops together, laughing about just about everything. He helped me choose a present for my uncle, and I showed him how you didn't have to spend a lot of money to buy something special for someone. It was the first completely good day I had enjoyed since the night Azalea went on the date with Reginald. I never wanted it to end. Unfortunately when it turned 1pm I knew I had to leave him and go off to my job. I didn't want to go, but I didn't have a choice. Besides, I had to order Honey's giant cake and prepare for it to be sent to his house.

"I have to go now," I informed him with a sigh.

"Huh? Why? Where are you going? Home? I am sure Mr. Wyatt won't mind you staying out a little longer, it's not even dark yet!" reasoned Hikaru. I could feel little butterflies in my stomach. He didn't want me to leave. I could feel the grin on my face stretch out wide.

"Well… uh… I guess you could come with me." I stared down at my shoes, afraid of his reaction, but I had to continue to explain myself. "I am going to work. I needed it to earn some money for Christmas presents this year, so I started waitressing in a cafe," I explained.

I could feel Hikaru's eyes watching me, but I dared not look up. I was afraid he would laugh at me.

"That's so cute," he remarked. His reaction made me double-take and finally look up at him. He was smiling at me affectionately. I could feel my cheeks burn brighter, and the butterflies began to stomp around like elephants. Why that reaction, I couldn't say.

I bumped his shoulder playfully.

"Don't be silly, everyone gets jobs for money, its nothing out of the ordinary... or uh... cute," I mumbled, feeling embarrased all of a sudden.

"But not especially for gifts," he retorted, still smiling.

I observed his golden eyes, which were watching me thoughtfully. I don't know why that made my heart beat faster, but it did. I had an unfamiliar feeling that made me want to touch him. Then, watching him carefully, I realised why.

I liked him. I liked him more than just as friends. And I was wishing he liked me too.

My realization brought on a whole new flurry of emotions. Happiness. Hope. Longing. Embarrassment. But also fear. What if he rejected me?

When did I become this fragile? When have I ever worried about having my heart broken. People have hurting me my whole life. My mother. My father. Those horrible bitchey girls. Harry. It was something I could always deal with. But somehow, this was different. Rejection from him… it would crush me.

So I wouldn't say anything about it. Ever.

"Anyway!" I trilled, breaking the silence that had started. It was only then that I realised we had stopped walking, and were just standing there staring at each other like idiots.

I began to walk ahead, and Hikaru followed. Despite my sentence opener, no words would follow. We walked in a very close to uncomfortable silence for a little while, until we finally reached the café where I worked. Then conversation seemed to pick up again as Hikaru asked me about the place, how much I earn, the people who worked there, how long I planned on staying. I replied happily enough. He also admired my cute little cafe worker outfit. But that was to be expected, nothing special there, his mother worked in fashion. Yet I still hoped.

He spent my entire shift in the café, eating, drinking and watching me work. To say it made me nervous was to make an understatement. I can't even count how many times I dropped a plate, or tripped over a chair. It was humiliating.

Then after I had cleaned up and put Honey's present on order (which was going to be absolutely _huge_), he walked me home. It was only just getting dark and I could have called for a car, but it was nicer to just be with him for once. No Kaoru. No host club. Just us.

I am such a sucker. But there were no changing things now. I couldn't un-meet him, or un-like him, and I didn't think I wanted too. I guess I would just be this soft sappy person for the rest of my life.

* * *

**Well this chapter was a total flop, but I couldnt think of anything to write. Seriously, I have been at this since 9am, and now it is... 6.15pm. Hopefully after xmas, things will speed up, because we have a lot of ideas that can only happen after xmas. Please review!**

**Silvana  
x**


	13. Chapter 12

**Azalea's POV **

So I had Tamaki for Secret Santa and I had to get rid of this giant edible house instead of being able to . Hmph. Just who had told him about this secret Santa thing anyway? Besides that, what was I supposed to get him? I suppose he did like learning things about commoners. But how would I find out these things on my own? I could ask Ardea, but then she'd know who I have. I decided to buy him all different everyday things that commoners use. Like ramen or ready-meals.

In the end I found a ramen recipe book. I'm sure he'd love that. It wasn't something elaborate and expensive, but I suppose that was the appeal. Plus, there wasn't really a secret way to buy elaborate gifts.

Now I could focus on Ardea's present.

I spent all day trying to think of something better than the clothes I had bought her. I came up with nothing.

Ardea had been gone all day, I tried calling her but she didn't pick up. I knew she had gone Christmas shopping earlier in the day, but she'd been gone quite a while now.

BANG!

...Speak of the devil. I went downstairs to see Ardea carrying tons of shopping bags, she'd slammed the door shut and her shopping had gone everywhere. I turned round just incase something was for me, but Ardea reassured me differently, "it's fine, nothing is yours in this bag." I swivelled back round and gave her a hand. Sighing with relief as she dumped the bags on the side, she sat on the kitchen stool. I got out two glasses from the cupboard and some juice from the fridge. Pouring it out I started to ask why she had been gone for so long.

"So, what took you so long?" I asked, but I didn't get a reply. Looking over to Ardea I could see that she was day-dreaming and that her eyes were glazed over.

"Ardea!" I yelled, and clapped for extra emphasis. She jumped up out of her seat like some had stuck a firework up her bum.

"You alright?" I laughed and she nodded. She was being strangely quiet today. Suspicious. Ardea took a sip of her juice and I watched her intently with one eye raised. It took her a minute to realise that I was watching her.

"What?" She asked, with an almost defending stance.

"You're a bit... _wooooo_ today, that's all. Where have you been anyway?" I probed her and she shrugged.

"I've just been shopping that's all. I bumped into Hikaru while I was there."

Ahh. So that's what's up. I didn't know for definite that she liked him but I was pretty sure. I had a feeling Hikaru liked her too. He behaved really strangely when she'd mentioned that she'd had lots of boyfriend's back in England and the first day at school when she'd locked eyes with him was a big clue that they'd instantly been attracted to one another. They had also been a lot closer since I'd been in hospital.

"Oh, ok. Did you get everything you wanted?"

"Yeah, there was a lot to choose from." She said.

We talked for a little while before Ardea went up to her room to put away her presents before my dad got home. This was my chance to phone Hikaru. I ran up to my bedroom so that Ardea wouldn't overhear me and dialled his number.

"Hey, Azalea, what's up?" He chimed.

"Well Ardea just got home and is putting away the presents, she didn't spend too much did she? She was gone for hours and I know she was with you so..." I queried but Hikaru answered quickly, giving away information that Ardea probably didn't want me knowing.

"Oh no, we weren't shopping for that long. We were at the café where she works for most of the time."

Ardea has a job? Well it would certainly explain why she would go out in the morning and not come back for hours when she'd only gone out to the shops – and she would turn down an offer to be driven in one of the cars. She must have been trying to pay for the presents herself. Why? She's as much a part of this family as I am. Didn't she know that Dad has set up a bank account for her?

"Oh yes – how long were you there?" I inquired, trying to get more out of him that might hint that he liked her.

"Only a couple of hours, it wasn't too busy today so we mostly sat there laughing about how cute she looked in her work clothes."

Bingo.

"Okay, well thanks Hikaru – Bye!" I said and hung up before he could ask why I was asking so many questions. Although I did hear him go, "I don't think I was supposed to tell -" just before I pressed the red button.

I knew what I was going to do for her Christmas present. It would sort of be a Christmas present to Hikaru too. I was going to set them up on a date with each other. It would have to be close to Christmas – maybe a sleigh ride with horses through the snow before going to winter fair? Or would that not be to Ardea's tastes? Oh well, tough. That was what she was going to get.

Now, the problem was getting them there. I knew Ardea, and she wouldn't go if I told her what I was doing. I needed help with this present, I'd never be able to do it alone. Getting out my phone I rang up the other Hitachiin twin.

"Kaoru, I need your help."

**A few days later... 20th December**

I sent a text to Hikaru asking him to meet me by the old train station on Christmas Eve at 8pm, then I asked Ardea to come out with me for a present. Only on the day, I would already be out and text her telling her to meet me by the old train station. They both agreed (although Hikaru was confused as I wouldn't tell him why I needed to see him – truth is, I couldn't think up a proper reason) and neither seemed to suspect anything. Everything was going to plan. Kaoru had made sure that any invitations of any sort to Hikaru and Ardea were intercepted and I heard that Ardea was invited to a lot of Christmas parties on Christmas Eve – she was certainly fitting in well at Ouran. He also made sure that everything about the date was perfect and that I hadn't missed anything out.

Roll on December 24th!

**Done the chapter, got a bit back on track now :D Still short, and some of it is just a bit of babbling but it is a chapter, nonetheless! :) So, hopefully Silvana will have the next chapter up tomorrow because that will be the last one until after boxing day (Someone told me American's don't have boxing day? So yeah, it's the day after Xmas)**

**Ash =3**


	14. Chapter 13

**Ardea's POV**

Azalea kept giving me weird grins for the whole day. It was Christmas Eve and it was rolling by very quickly. I was already sitting down for lunch. My curiosity about my present from Azalea had been building all day. What was it? Why was I getting it before Christmas? Why did we have to go out somewhere to get it?

The suspense left a fuzzy excited feeling in my stomach. I needed to know more about what was going to happen. What should I wear? I should go ask. After all, she might be taking me to some posh restaurant or something and I didn't want to go in sweats or whatever. But then again I don't want to go to a concert in a nice dress.

"ZAYLIE!" I called at the top of my lungs as I sped upstairs to her room. I couldn't help it I was excited!

Zaylie was just exiting her room as I came up, so I dragged her into mine, the magazine she was reading being flung to the floor.

"Okay, about tonight—"

"No I am not telling you what is going to happen, stop asking!" she protested, flinging herself onto my bed.

"You could at least tell me what to wear!" I cried. "I mean, should I wear jeans and a t-shirt?"

"Nu-uh. You want to dress up a bit but not too much," she replied sitting up, seemingly as excited as I was. She jumped up off the bed and sauntered off into my wardrobe, me bounding in behind her.

"Okay," she began, looking around. "We want to be dressed casual, but nice." She gave me a secretive smile and I wanted to hit her in frustration. So the attire gave away no clues. Damn.

She rooted around in my wardrobe for a little until she came out with a cute little sky blue skirt. It was pleated and came to about mid-thigh on me. I purposefully glanced outside at the snow.

"I know, I know," muttered Azalea, who then moved to a draw and pulled out a very long pair of black socks and flung them at me. I laughed and she poked her tongue out at me.

Next she moved on to look at tops. Scanning through the rails she eventually picked out a white t-shirt, which had sky blue swirl detail on it. Then she moved onto jumpers. I was watching her carefully, not really knowing what else to do, so when the mischievous look crossed her face, I saw it. She stopped looking for jumpers and turned to me.

"Done!" she smiled, smug.

"I am going to freeze. Didn't you notice the ten inches of snow outside?" I asked her, not believing she was dressing me in hardly anything.

"Of course. But trust me, you'll be warm." She smiled at me deviously. My eyes narrowed in suspicion. She was up to something…but what?

Hurry up and come already 7 o'clock!

But no, now the day decided to start dragging by. I can't count how many times I glared at the clock, trying to force time to move faster. Eventually however it was time to get ready. That's when time decided to rush me and me and Azalea where running out of the door to make it in time. The rush of cold air swamped me as I ran outside in my thin t-shirt. Azalea was crazy for making me wear this! We better be inside. Luckily I had decided to wear my black boots, so at least the cold snow wasn't soaking into my socks. Fashionable and practical.

Our plan for the evening was to do some Christmas shopping for half an hour, and then we would go off to do whatever this surprise thing was. I hated leaving any of the shops to go out into the cold with no coat. Azalea had to apologise every single time I glared at her, and promise me that we would be warm soon. Despite being freezing, I did enjoy our shopping. Me and Azalea were so alike in taste that we had a good time ogling over all of the amazing clothes and accessories (and buying most of them).

Eventually we began to make our way to whatever my surprise was. I could now ignore the cold because of the heated excitement building up inside of me. I had been waiting for this for ages!

"Can you tell me where we are going yet?" I asked Azalea, almost hopping down the road. She smiled at me secretively.

"No, wait until you get there," she replied mysteriously to my frustration.

"I hate you sometimes," I told her, but there was no seriousness in my voice, and she laughed. Then we came to a sudden halt and Azalea looked up at me.

"Oh no, I forget to get my present for Tamaki!" she cried. Then she was running off down the street. "Stay there, I will be right back!" she called behind her shoulder.

"Wait! Can't we go together…?" I called after her. She didn't hear me. Then she turned out of sight. Rather than risk getting lost, decided to go into the closest warmest shop, which just so happened to be a cute little café. Perfect.

I sat for about ten minutes before my phone buzzed with a text message:

_Sorry I ran off, I am just going to drop some things off at home. Meet me at the old train station at 8pm._

_Azalea _

_X_

Oh great. So she was heading off home while I could have been freezing to death. I glanced at the clock on my phone, 7.46pm.

I guess I should start walking if I wanted to make it to the old station in time. Why there? Weird.

When I arrived it had just turned 7.55, so I wandered around for a bit. There was nobody else around and I wasn't particularly surprised. The only thing this station was used for was travelling from one part of town to the other half at the top of the hill.

I stood shivering in the snow, reading one of the old posters advertising a 'new' brand of nappies that had probably been released first when I was born. The old poster was faded and seemed to be rotting away. You'd have thought they would change it.

Something warm was placed across my shoulders and I jumped in surprise. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I hadn't even heard anyone crunch through the snow. My heart was racing. But when I turned around to see who it was I immediately relaxed.

Hikaru.

"You looked cold," he laughed. That's when I realised that the warm thing on my shoulder was his jacket. I blushed and smiled at him gratefully.

"Thanks, I was freezing," I laughed. He gave me a half smile.

"Why are you out here wearing only a t-shirt anyway?" he asked, glancing around the empty street.

"I am waiting for Azalea… she is supposed to be giving me my Christmas present today but she ran off somewhere. Then I got a text telling me to meet her here," I explained.

"And you decided to go out wearing only a skirt and a t-shirt? Are you crazy?" he joked. I glared at him.

"It's not my fault. Azalea picked out my clothes for me and promised me we would be warm," I huffed. Hikaru laughed again.

"Good thing I was here then," he smiled.

"My hero!" I drawled very dramatically and very sarcastically, which got yet another laugh out of Hikaru. Boy he was a happy chappy close to Christmas.

"So Hikaru, why _are_ you here?" I asked, "Not that I wish you weren't," I added as an afterthought.

"Well... uh, I am supposed to be meeting my brother." He suddenly looked at me closely and suspicion crept into his eyes. "Something suspicious is happening here," he muttered.

My phone began to buzz, so I pulled it out of my bag and flipped it open. Azalea was calling me. At last! I answered and put the phone to my ear.

"Sup? Where are you?" I asked her.

"Okay, is it there yet?" she asked. I frowned.

"Is what here, where on earth—" Then I knew what she meant. Hikaru and me stared in wonder as a huge white sleigh rounded the corner. It was pulled by two white horses and driven by a chubby man in a white suit. Weird. My phone had fallen from my ear onto the floor as my mouth gaped. I quickly picked up my phone.

"What on earth is _that?_" I asked in disbelief.

"Shut up for a sec and put us on speaker phone." I did as she said.

"Waaaait, what do you mean by 'us'? Who else is there?" I asked. Hikaru said nothing but was listening carefully.

"Uhh… hi?" It was Kaoru. Hikaru almost jumped back, startled.

"What is going on?" asked Hikaru, annoyed now. He didn't like to be messed around.

"Well, me and Azalea kind of organised a uh…" Kaoru trailed off.

"A day out!" finished Azalea, who seemed to be bursting with excitement, and unaware of the now thoroughly pissed off Hikaru. I however could see his expression and wasn't saying anything.

"What do you mean by 'day out'. For a start, its no longer day, it is dark, its is snowing and Ardea was freezing until I came along. What the hell are you playing at?" spat Hikaru.

"Hey, relax bro! Just enjoy it okay?" laughed Kaoru. Hikaru gritted his teeth for a moment before sighing and seeming to relax.

"Okay… so I am guessing you want us to get in the sleigh?" I asked.

"Of course! Then it will take you to your special destination!" replied Azalea. She sure was excited about this.

"Then what?" asked Hikaru.

"Don't be such a grump Hikaru!" complained his brother.

"Yeah, just go an enjoy yourselves! Merry Christmas!" cried Azalea, hanging up the phone before me or Hikaru could argue.

My insides felt like jelly. Azalea had set me up on a date with Hikaru. While utterly confused, I was also completely giddy with joy.

Then I looked at Hikaru and he still looked annoyed. My heart dropped.

"Uhh… we don't have to do it if you don't want to," I told him. "… I don't mind going alone," I did mind. "I won't make you stay." I wish I could.

Hikaru was watching me carefully. I knew I looked upset but I couldn't really help it. He smiled. Then I knew he was coming. I smiled back at him. So we climbed into the sleigh, talking and laughing and drove off into the night.

Later…

The sleigh had taken us around the block a few times (for enjoyment, and yes, it was enjoyable) before going to a winter fair. When we arrived it was packed full of people bustling around, buying things, riding the fair rides and watching the mini-shows. A constant roll of Christmas music was played in the background. Considering Christmas wasn't an actual holiday in Japan they sure knew how to celebrate it. I could feel a little happy buzz inside me.

"So… want something to eat?" asked Hikaru.

"Yes! I am starving," I giggled. Oh gosh, the giggles had started. Hikaru smiled in response and began to struggle through the crowd. I tried to go after him, which was perhaps a stupid idea after I realized I had lost sight of him and I didn't know where I was. People were knocking into me from all sides.

I felt claustrophobic and closed in. The little happy part of me began to dissolve as panic took over. I hated tight spaces. Hated them. I could feel myself get hot. I needed to get out of the crowd. Must get out. Get out now. I shut my eyes and wished myself somewhere else.

Someone took my hand, and slowly I was lead out of the crowd, my eyes still closed. I held onto the hand as hard as I could. It was my lifeline as far as I was concerned.

Then I broke free of the crowd and suddenly I could breathe again. I was sat on a bench, and good thing because I couldn't feel my legs. I slowly opened my eyes and pair of gold eyes was looking into mine, full of concern.

Hikaru had pulled me out of the crowd.

"Sorry…" I mumbled, looking down at my feet. I felt like such a baby.

"It's okay. Claustrophobic right? Kaoru was the same when he was young." Hikaru's voice was gentle and it calmed me nerves to no end.

"I'm fine if someone stays with me," I smiled.

"So I shall," replied Hikaru softly. It wasn't until he had pulled me up off the bench that I realised he was still holding my hand. And he didn't let go, even as we wandered off into the fair.

After that horrible experience Hikaru made sure he stuck by me. His hand was in mine for most of the time too. After he had to let go to buy some pancakes, I thought he wouldn't hold it again. But he did, he took my hand gently, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

The butterflies were back and hosting a parade in my stomach for the entire time. I felt warm and happy all from my toes, to my head. I couldn't believe I was actually on (what amounted to at least) a date with Hikaru Hitachiin. I couldn't believe my luck. All thanks to Azalea. She was a great cousin and an even better friend.

I had the best night of my life looking in Christmas stalls, going on the rides, watching the performances… and just generally being with the guy I had fallen for. I can't remember ever feeling this way about anyone and it was making me treat Hikaru better than I had ever treated a guy. I had always seen them as some sort of temporary item. Guys were sort of accessories that would eventually go out of fashion. Shallow way to put it, but I had never had a reason to trust a guy. They had never treated me well.

But with Hikaru it was different. I wanted him to stick around. I wanted him to really like me. I was really in deep this time. I am such an idiot. But, because it was him, I didn't care. I would be an idiot.

It ended far too quickly. Before I knew it my car had arrived and I was saying goodbye.

I couldn't stop smiling at him.

"Thanks for the best night, Hikaru." My cheeks were burning. Why now, after a whole night of laughing and talking with him, did I feel nervous? Hikaru gave me the cutest smile I could imagine.

"Thank you too. We should do it again sometime." He seemed to be embarrassed, but not nervous at all.

I didn't know how to just let go of his hand now and get in the car. I didn't want to. I think Hikaru noticed my reluctance, because he smirked and opened the door for me. I blushed bright red.

"Goodnight Hikaru," I said softly, turning to look back at him as I sat down and buckled my seatbelt. He was closer than I thought when I turned to him.

"Goodnight Ardea," he replied. Then he leaned in and kissed me gently on the cheek.

Before I could react he had closed the door and was walking away. I could see him laughing as he walked off towards his own car.

By the time I got home I was still in shock and the electricity from his kiss was still charging through my body, making me feel aflame. Azalea tackled me as soon as I came through the door, demanding details. I was still in a state of deliriously happy shock. Not that Azalea didn't have her ways and means of extracting information. Soon enough I was describing the whole wonderful night, thanking her for the best Christmas present, and thinking about how wonderful I felt at this moment in time.

**Review please :)**

**Silvana x**


	15. Chapter 14

**Azalea's POV**

It felt like I had been waiting for Ardea to get home for hours. I couldn't wait to find out how the date had gone; hopefully she wouldn't be mad at me for setting her up. I thought it was a great Christmas present personally. Once Hikaru had arrived home, Kaoru rang me to let me know.

"He seems quite pleased with himself actually," He commented, and even though it was a weird thing for Hikaru to be feeling like he'd accomplished something rather than just being happy, I was just glad that meant it went well.

"He –" Kaoru started, but I interrupted.

"Don't tell me about the date! I want to hear it from Ardea!" I screamed dramatically, and Kaoru chuckled at the end of the line.

"Alright, see you later, Z." He said and hung up. I smiled. Few people could call me 'Z' and get away with it. He seemed to be one of them.

I put my phone away in my pocket and nervously looked at the clock. Where was she? She should have been home by now. I waited all of five minutes, attempting sitting still and distracting myself before I had to pace up and down the room.

Luckily, Ardea came through the door at the right moment. Any longer and I probably would have self-imploded. I_ needed_ to know how the date went from her. I'm too nosey for my own good, really.

Ardea closed the door and sighed. Her cheeks were bright red, and I wasn't sure if she had been blushing or if it was just from the cold. I ran up to her and grabbed both her arms.

"Well? How did it go? Did he give you his jacket?" I asked her, but she just nodded dreamily. Urgh. I led her to the sofa where she sat down and I demanded that she told me everything. She eventually seemed to open up and I got pretty much all the details – it wasn't hard to get them out of her, as soon as you get her talking, it's difficult to get her to stop.

"AAAHHH!" I screamed. Hikaru had kissed her? Ok, so it was only on the cheek, but still. This date went better than I could have planned. I hoped that they were both grateful as to how much effort went into getting them on that date, and trying to do it secretively was even harder. I'd have to make quick phone calls while Ardea was in the bath. Once, I had to go and collect the man who was steering the sleigh to the fair from the train station and drop him off at the hotel. Apparently Ardea didn't have anywhere to go that day and it took a lot of convincing to get her to stay behind while I went out. In the end I had to tell her I was going to get her Christmas present. When I got home after dropping the man off, she looked a bit disappointed to see me empty handed.

"Thank you; I had a really good time." She said and I felt a boom of pride in my stomach. She grinned and walked off upstairs, probably still rewinding and playing the night in her head.

"Merry Christmas!" I yelled as she reached halfway up the stairs. I heard her say something back in a muffled voice from upstairs and then her bedroom door slammed.

Now I just had to work out what she had got me. She hadn't given anything away and I hadn't found any presents hidden anywhere. What could she have possibly bought me?

**Christmas Day….**

I woke up with butterflies in my stomach. I was still just like a little child when it came to Christmas. I rolled over on my bed and looked over at my bedside clock. 5.05AM. Great, I am never allowed up before 7am. For some reason, on Christmas Day, my mind does not allow me to feel tired. I know that my body was tired however, because I had bags under my eyes the size of Mount Everest and I was yawning constantly. But something inside me made me feel energetic. _Christmas spirit_ sounds too cheesy. I tried to open the door as quietly as possible, crept down the stairs and went into the living room; I didn't have to look too far. The presents weren't just under the tree, they were everywhere. All over the floor, on the sofa, on the coffee table, piled high. There weren't as many last year, but then again Ardea wasn't here last year. I snuck back upstairs without making any noise and went into Ardea's room. I couldn't see her properly because everything was dark – the only light was from behind the translucent curtains. Ardea looked like a lump in the middle of her bed. I laughed and did a running jump onto her bed. She screamed in a high pitched, girly voice that broke in the middle.

"It's Christmas! Wake up!" I yelled, laughing at her while she sat up with her hair sticking up in all directions – not that mine looked any better. She looked around the room for a bit, dazed and then looked at the time. 5.30AM.

"Zaylie, we can't get up yet! It's too early." She complained but I shook it off. Nothing was going to deter my excitableness today.

"I knooooowww," I whined pathetically although still grinning like a maniac. "But I've been awake for aaages and I've got you this year to sit up with!"

Ardea sighed and heaved herself out of bed. She went into her bathroom and I turned her lights on. Even though it was early, I turned on the CD player and set it to radio so I could hear the Christmas songs. I felt sorry for the people working on the radio stations on Christmas day. But oh well, it can't be helped.

"How are we going to waste time until 7AM?" I heard Ardea yell from the bathroom.

"We could get washed and dressed first? Dad says 7AM but I can usually get him up at twenty to 7." I explained. Ardea agreed and I went to my own room to have a shower. I didn't rush because I wanted to waste as much time as possible. I got out and dressed in my pink top with ruffles and my dark jeans. Forget being comfortable, I wanted to look good - mainly because we always had visitors during the day. Dad always says it's an open house on Christmas day to any friends and family of ours. People always took up that invitation, especially since Dad always cooked enough for at least twenty.

I dried and brushed my hair. For a change I decided that I should try and sort my hair out for once. It wasn't easy to change it from its normally messy state. I washed it, brushed it, straightened it and put hairspray on it. It took a while, but finally, it looked decent.

6.20AM and I was done. So, another twenty minutes and I could start working on getting Dad up. Ardea came into my room this time, dressed comfortable in her sweats and a clean t-shirt. She saw my outfit and the look on her face said '_you're mad.'_

"I didn't tell you, did I?" I asked her and she shook her head, still looking at me like I was clinically insane. I know why, Christmas morning was an excuse to look a bit wrecked but excitable.

"Dad always invites people over to open their presents. It sounds strange but a lot of people come over. That's why we're not allowed up until 7, because people start arriving at half past and he makes us have breakfast first so that we're still opening presents when people arrive." I explained and with that Ardea turned back around, groaned and went back into her room to get changed into something less comfortable.

It was 7.10AM by the time Ardea was done, that was the latest I'd ever tried to convince my Dad to get up, ever on Christmas day. He'd had a 30 minute lie in. He should consider himself lucky; it looks like Ardea being here had improved the length of time he gets to sleep.

We walked into his room, Ardea looking rather nervous. She'd never been in my Dad's room so I guess she didn't know what to expect. I only go in it once a year; generally I don't really need to go in there. I knew, however, that this wouldn't be what she was expecting.

I switched on the light and saw the familiar lilac walls and lilac floors with speckles of silver. He had a silver and blue bedspread on his four poster bed with purple curtains that was raised up from the floor by some steps. This room used to be my room. That was why he had a four poster bed with purple curtains and silver and purple floors. I had moved out of that room 4 months ago in preparation for Ardea moving in and although my new room had been decorated the way I wanted it, Dad hadn't changed my old room. So he looked a bit camp lying in that bed.

I walked up the marble steps to his bed quietly and then gave him a small nudge. He gave a small grunt and turned over. This routine was the same as every other year, only this time I had help. I waved Ardea over so she could help me get him up and she quickly came and stood beside me.

We nudged him and nudged him and he kept moving away from us and covering himself with more covers. I looked at my watch to see the time and panicked. Guests would be arriving in 20 minutes and my Dad wasn't even out of bed.

"Dad it's ten past 7," I told him and all of a sudden he jumped out of bed.

"What? Why didn't you tell me this earlier?" He asked, running round the room like a headless chicken. I didn't answer him; instead I dragged Ardea downstairs so we could have some breakfast. She went completely wide eyed when she saw all the presents. I laughed and carried on dragging her by the arm to the kitchen. This was one of the few times a year that we let all the staff have a day off. Our birthdays being the other because we wanted to be together just as a family.

I quickly poured out a bowl of cereal each for us and we scoffed them down as fast as we could so that we could get onto the presents. Dad ran downstairs so that he could start preparing the dinner and told us we could start opening my presents.

I grabbed a huge present in pink wrapping paper and looked for a label so I could see which side of the room was my side. This was the guests presents, the huge present was for a work colleague of Dad's who I think he likes.

Ardea had clearly found her presents because as she saw a label she squeaked and went to unwrapping. I went to the other side and looked at my presents. One present in particular caught my eye. It was an unwrapped box that was oddly placed holes in it. I could guess what it was, it was obviously some sort of animal and if my dad had been listening to me at all, it would be a kitten.

I reaaally wanted to open the box and get out my new kitten, but I knew it would be unfair on the poor little thing with all this wrapping paper flying about everywhere, so I left it in the box. As I opened the rest of my presents, I could hear it mewing at me. As I was halfway through opening my presents, I heard the doorbell ring and my dad yell "Come in!"

Two of dad's friends walked through the door, they came every year, but I still don't know their names. This is because they don't like to talk to me. They can't stand children, and they consider anyone under the age of 18 to be children. I suppose the can afford to be that way, they don't have anyone that they need to impress – besides my dad, and he doesn't notice that they never talk to me.

Once I'd opened all my presents besides the box with the kitten in it, I looked over at Ardea who was still opening presents. Most of her body was hidden by things that she'd gotten for Christmas. You could just about see her arms and the top of her head. I could see from her pile that she had clothes, jewellery and a brand new iPod. Jealous. But then again I did get the kitten I wanted.

Dad was busy cooking in his apron and setting out snacks on the table that people could pick at. His two friends were laughing with glasses of champagne and sitting on the kitchen stools that only half an hour ago I had been sitting on myself.

More people arrived until there were ten of us in the room, half of us were here and it was only 8am. Finally time to open the box.

Just I was about to open the box, a voice behind me made me jump out of my skin, hitting the box ever so slightly, and making it shake.

"What's in the box?" The voice asked, and I turned around to see Kaoru grinning and holding a neatly wrapped present.

"A kitten. A live one, hopefully. That is, if you didn't make me jump and hit the box and hurt the poor thing." I smiled through my dark comment to show I was joking; he could only scratch his head thoughtfully and then change the subject.

"Merry Christmas!" He proclaimed and handed me the present. But he stopped me from opening it. "It's for your dad, not you." He laughed and walked off to say hello to Ardea who was sitting with Hikaru showing him her presents as he did hers.

Why didn't he just give it to my dad if that's who the present was for? I sighed and flipped over the label so I could read it.

_To Mr Wyatt_

_Merry Christmas_

_Love the Hitachiin's_

I assume that included their mother as well. Whether or not she was here I couldn't tell because I had never seen her before.

I left the present down underneath the Christmas tree near my Dad's slowly growing Christmas presents pile. I could finally sit down in peace and open the box that was my little pet. I had already opened other like cat baskets and scratching posts (although they seemed more like presents for the car rather than for me) and I had set them up in the corner of the room, only to have my dad tell me off and make me set them up upstairs.

On opening the box, I saw a tiny ginger tabby with bright blue eyes. It had a little fluffy mane around his face and as he looked up at me, he gave a little meow and pawed at the air. I picked it up and looked to see if it was a girl or a boy – most definitely a boy. He wouldn't stay still as I placed him on my lap, he jumped up and circled me on the floor, then pawed at my clothes and rolled on his back when he finally settled down on my jeans.

"Awwwwh!" I heard Ardea squeal as she caught sight of the little cat and she came over to pet it. He purred affectionately and when she took her hand away, he jumped up to see where she had gone. It only took a second before he stopped doing that and prowled around the room occasionally giving little playful growls when he reached bar stool legs. The two work colleagues of dad's that didn't like children didn't seem to like animals either. The woman looked in disgust at my kitten and so I picked him up and took him away before she did something like stomp on him with her stiletto.

"He needs a name," Ardea pointed out after I sat down as far away from the woman as possible to keep my little baby safe (yes, he has become my baby). I looked at him intently and tried to come up with a name, to no prevail.

"What about Sigmund?" Hikaru suggested, and Kaoru, Ardea and I all turned our heads simultaneously to face Hikaru with a look of disbelief.

"Does he look like a Sigmund to you? Plus, that's a weird name." I pointed out and then an imaginary light bulb seemed to PING! Above Ardea's head.

"I've got some suggestions, what about one of these? Tag, Chico or Hunter?" She asked and I looked back at my little kitten, he wasn't any of those.

"No, Chico sounds too like Chika – don't want her thinking I've named my cat after her. I don't think he's really a Tag and I don't know about Hunter – don't cross it off the list just yet."

"Hey you two!" My dad called from the other side of the room. "Azalea, take that little terror up to your room, will you? You two have got a slightly bigger present each that I couldn't wrap up."

Ardea and I exchanged glances, ooohh, what could this be? It had to be big if it couldn't be wrapped.

I picked up "blank" who was sniffing underneath the table where little crumbs had fallen onto the floor and ran upstairs. His hair looked a bit windswept when I placed him in his basket. Of course, he didn't stay there. As soon as I walked away from the basket, "blank" gave a loud meow and jumped out, trying to climb onto the bed. I just hoped that he didn't tear up all of my blankets.

Back downstairs, Dad appeared to have a big bunch of keys that I had never seen before. Everyone had gone quiet as he opened a back door and made both of us follow him. The room we were in was pitch black and it didn't feel familiar – how had dad managed to build an entire room onto the end of the house without anyone noticing?

He flicked on the lights and I squinted as my eyes readjusted. It was a room full of motorbikes of different shapes and sizes. Huh? This didn't mean anything to me, but as I turned to look at Ardea, I saw that it was all for her. Her eyes lit up as she looked over every bike.

"This is yours," He said to Ardea who gasped and moved past each bike with awe, finally stopping at a red and black one. She placed one hand on it and while she admired it, I saw Dad looking at his keys again. He took a very small one and opened a small drawer. He took out a square pad and handed it to Ardea whose eyes practically popped right out of her head. I walked round and saw what she was looking at. A picture of a giant racetrack and a small sort of driver's permit. Dad had managed to buy Ardea about 12 motorbikes, a racetrack and a permit so she could actually ride them.

"Your first lesson starts in January." My dad said once again and Ardea squealed so high I swear that at one point her voice went above the point of human hearing. She thanked him repeatedly, and Dad laughed until finally I coughed and Dad went to get something else out of the same drawer. Another photo.

"A plane?" I asked him as I looked down at the photo of my Dad standing outside a small white plane.

"Your private jet." He stated, matter-of-factly.

"Dad!" I yelled and jumped up and hugged him.

**Back at dinner… **

Dad had prepared everything and now everyone was sitting eating dinner. Dad was sitting on the end, and I was sitting next to him. Beside me was Ardea, and she got to sit next to the twins. Lucky cow. I'd get my dad pulling weird jokes from crackers and trying to tell me about Christmas' he would spend with my mother in England before I was born. Then he'd get drunk and mope around. All the while, Ardea would be laughing and joking with Hikaru and Kaoru and impressing their mother (who I know discovered was a very glamorous woman that looked very much like the twins).

"I've already come up with a name for the kitten." My dad said, and I groaned. Oh dear, he was going to come up with something worse than Hikaru's suggestion of Sigmund.

"Tare. It's short for Antares and that's the red star in the Scorpio constellation." He told me, and surprisingly enough, I liked it.

"Yes Dad, it's perfect." I smiled and took a mouthful of my food before turning to Ardea.

"Where's my present then?" I asked her with an eyebrow raised.

"You'll see," she teased. "You'll get your present on the 27th, but you'll know what it is tonight."

I couldn't wait to find it what it was and be prepared for it. What could it possibly be?

**Later that night…**

After everyone had gone home, I went to get ready for bed. We had hugged everybody goodbye and I squealed when I saw Hikaru hug Ardea goodbye, then – embarrassingly enough, went a bit light headed when Kaoru hugged me. He smelt amazing. I recognised the smell too. I just hoped that no-one noticed – especially Kaoru.

I got into my pyjama's which Tare had lovingly torn at the ends while I was trying to dress into them and then scooped him up into my arms with his little cat blanket and let myself into Ardea's room.

"Don't you knock? I could have been changing!" She scolded and I laughed sheepishly.

"Yes, but I'm slower than you, so I knew you'd be ready. Plus, you have to tell me what my present is!" I cried with excitement. Tare mewed, letting me know I was disturbing his sleep and so I sat down calmly and lay him down on Ardea's bed. She didn't seem to be too happy and the ginger and white hairs he was leaving on the quilt.

"Ok," she sighed, and slumped onto her bed to join me. "Well, on the 27th, you'll be singing at your own concert- " She started but I stopped her with a loud squeak.

"Whhhaaaa?" I yelled, slightly excited at the thought of singing on stage, but more scared than anything.

"I'll be playing guitar of course," she pointed out, smiling. She seemed proud of herself that she'd thought up such a brilliant gift. It was brilliant – and terrifying. Where had she heard that I liked to sing?

"When?" I asked her, urging her for details.

"On the 27th, so in two days' time." She told me and I went into super panic mode. I had to find clothes, a song to sing, people to invite, people to cancel things with – I had planned on going for a visit to my granddad's house. However, Ardea seemed to almost read my mind.

"I arranged everything, clothes are sorted, Granddad knows why we're not visiting and everyone at school has been invited. Everybody's really excited to hear you sing – especially Kaoru." She winked and I threw a pillow at her. So she had noticed my reaction to his hug earlier.

"I'm sure he's not any more excited than the next person." I told her, but she shrugged it off and laughed. She wasn't convinced at all.

"Of course, we've got a couple of songs for you to sing – you'll have to learn them in time. So we better get started tomorrow."

Back into panic mode.

**The day of the concert…**

The day had finally arrived. I had spent hours learning my songs and perfecting them. Ardea had sat and practised with me on her new black guitar that she'd recently acquired and I'd had a full practise with the whole of the band that were going to be performing with us.

I could finally look at my outfit which had been picked out for me and hopefully I would love it. Mrs Hitachiin had designed it herself and had said that she thought it was "exactly my style". I couldn't wait to see it.

As I saw the rail being wheeled in with mine and Ardea's outfits on it, I looked for the one which was mine. I hastily ran upstairs with the outfit and put it on, looking at myself in my floor length mirror.

Something was wrong.

I was wearing a pink lacy leotard with a white spaghetti strap vest top underneath and some cutoff denim shorts. I also had peep-toe ankle boots. I also had some pleated, black fingerless, leather gloves and a black cord and silver chain bracelet. These were things I liked. However, Mrs Hitachiin had placed a blue and white lacy scarf with it, some leggings and a pink leather and crystal studded wristband which I didn't like at all. Not only that, but something was missing. Ardea walked in wearing her outfit which looked perfect. Typical.

She was wearing a black t-shirt with a white design on it and a leather jacket. She was also wearing black skinny jeans with long, black, heeled boots. Not only that, but she also had a black, leather bracelet with silver charms on it and a five layer, leather, studded belt. She also had a guitar pick hanging from a necklace and in her hair, her only splash of colour, was a ruffled red bow with a black guitar pick in the middle. She looked great, I looked a mess.

Ardea had noticed too.

"That outfit doesn't look right." She pointed out.

"Well done, Sherlock." I answered sarcastically, taking the scarf off from around my neck and throwing it on the bed. I quickly rummaged through my wardrobe to find something that would look better than the scarf and found a black waistcoat tied up by a string and had gold embroidery down each side. It looked perfect.

"But won't you upset Mrs Hitachiin by changing her outfit?" Ardea asked, sitting herself down on my chair by my vanity table and stroking Tare once he came to sit on her.

"Careful! Ginger and white hairs are going to stand out of your outfit," I warned her and she jumped up, causing poor little Tare to go flying across the room. He seemed alright when he got up, glaring a little at Ardea and prudently going to sit at the end of my bed.

"Yes," I sighed, going back to her question. "She probably will, but I cannot go on stage wearing that. I never expected Mrs Hitachiin to make such a mistake."

"Well, all designers go wrong sometimes." She said, trying to make me feel better but it wasn't working.

I took the pink wristband off my arm and also took off one of the fingerless gloves so I only had one on. Then I ran into the bathroom to take the leggings off and put my shorts on without them. When I came back out of the bathroom, Ardea looked concerned.

"It's lucky we've got a heater for your legs – you're going to be freezing."

I nodded and looked in the mirror. Still something missing.

"Here, put this on." Ardea said and handed me a black trilby hat with a feather in it. I smiled and put it on. That was what had been missing.

"Thank you!" I smiled and hugged her. "Come on, we need to go!" I yelled enthusiastically, running downstairs with Ardea being pulled along by me. To say I was excited about this today was an understatement.

"Bye dad!" I called out to him as I passed and I heard him wish me luck before I went.

The concert was brilliantly set out. The stage had four heaters lined up on the front and all the equipment – including Ardea's black guitar and my own microphone – bedazzled in black jewels of course, were there. Everyone I knew was starting to walk through the gates and wait. People I didn't know where here – but they were definitely from school because I recognised their faces. Family friends had also come and the whole host club were there to cheer us on. It was hard to miss them with Mori carrying Honey on his shoulders and the twins mucking about, winding Tamaki up at the front.

"Hey, no pressure," Ardea said to me, putting a reassuring arm on my shoulder, "but the song we chose for you, was for you to sing to Kaoru," She grinned and skipped away yelling, "Good luck!" behind her shoulder. I could have almost died right there. How… humiliating is the only word. I would never be able to even look Kaoru in the eye whilst singing the song.

"Right, everybody up on stage." I heard someone call out, and I felt myself being dragged along, looking out in front of everyone. Everyone had huge amounts of clothes on except me – the heaters were doing their job properly. I was focusing on anything else than what I was supposed to be doing.

I heard myself introduce myself and the song and then the band started playing their tune. Oh my god, are my knees buckling? Damn Ardea, she made me nervous! I'm shaking! Damn it! Open your mouth and sing you stupid girl!

I seemed to listen to myself because at the precise moment, the words came right out of my mouth.

_You should be wilder, you're no fun at all_  
_Yeah, thanks for the input, thanks for the call_  
_With dull knives and white hands, the blood of a stone_  
_Cold to the touch right, right down to the bone_

How is this supposed to be dedicated to Kaoru? The first verse is really insulting, something is seriously wrong with that girl. Suddenly it dawned on me that I'm actually performing a song.

I'm actually singing and people are… cheering. This was possibly one of the greatest Christmas presents anyone had ever given me. I can't believe that this song is supposed to be dedicated to Kaoru. I haven't looked at him once during the song. Maybe if I just have a quick glance at the host club, I can try and look at him without making it seem to obvious.

Of course, everyone including Kaoru was looking up at the stage – I don't know why I had expected anything different. I looked away from Kaoru and back up out into the distance so that I wasn't really in eye contact with anyone.

_But you give me the electric twist_  
_And it kicks and it kicks like a pony_  
_And true, you might get away with it_  
_It's a risk, it's a risk, yeah_

After a couple more songs, the concert ended and it was safe to say that Ardea and I were completely exhausted. As soon as we came offstage, we slumped onto some big comfy chairs that were waiting for us and I closed my eyes in hope of drifting off to sleep even though it would be pointless because I'd have to wake up again to go home.

"You did great!" I heard Honey cry and when I opened my eyes, I saw him squeakily praising Ardea, bunny in hand as usual. Mori nodded in approval and of course the twins and Tamaki complimented us. We had only been sat down for about ten minutes when someone interrupted us.

"Ardea, Can I talk to you please?" I heard a man say, but he was speaking English not Japanese. I only just understood what he was saying – my English was extremely limited to what we learnt in class and a little bit of what I already knew before I moved to Japan – which was not a lot considering that I was only three before I moved.

I looked around to where the voice was coming from and saw a tall guy. He had floppy brown hair just slightly in the way of his blue eyes. He was taller than Tamaki and much taller than the twins, but smaller than Mori. I couldn't explain what he was wearing – but basically he looked like he was about to rob a bank, punch a policeman and ride off on his motorbike to his squat. Whoever he was, he was really scary looking – obviously bad news.

"Harry," She gasped.

_Who the hell is Harry?_

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**Wow, this took me ages, and I've been busy over the holidays so it's been hard to find time to do this… So if you even bothered to read this stupidly long chapter, please review ;) The song is Electric Twist by A Fine Frenzy**

**Ash =3**


	16. Chapter 15

**Ardea's POV**

The world seemed to freeze for a moment when I caught sight of him walking in, heading straight for me. As he approached he flashed me one of his wicked smiles. It was one of the things that first attracted me to him back when I lived in England. Now it just filled me with a sense of dark terror.

"Ardea, can I talk to you please?" his baritone voice rang out across the now silent backstage room. My mouth hung agape in disbelief. What the _hell_ was he doing here?

"Harry," his name slipped from my lips familiarly. I felt like a deer caught in the headlights. My instincts were telling me to flee, because I knew I couldn't fight. I had tried that before. My body refused to obey and I sat frozen in my seat, only able to stare at him.

The memories were assaulting me, making my heart race and fear to rush through me.

"Please, I really need to speak with you…. Alone," he asked again. He was acting so calm and gentle. But I knew not to be fooled. I finally remembered my friends were around me, and I was not alone like I had been the last time I saw Harry. Everyone was looking between us, confused. They had no idea what was going on, they couldn't speak fluent English.

"What do you want, Harry?" I breathed, frightened that if I spoke louder he would snap. He had before. Many times he just lost his temper and I was on the bad end. All the terror I felt when I used to see him was now washing back over me, gripping me in its frigid claws.

There was a time when seeing Harry made me feel happy, when I thought I loved him. But it turned out I was in love with the idea of love, and what he pretended to be. It wasn't until I found myself hiding outside some club, hurt and crying, that I realised it wasn't love, and I didn't really know Harry.

I didn't want to be alone with him. But what choice did I have? Tense and scared, I stood up and began to follow him, telling everyone else that I would be right back, in Japanese of course.

I followed him outside, fists clenched. He spun to face me, the fury now apparent in his eyes. I flinched away from the burning look he gave me.

"Who the hell are they? Why haven't you called me? You selfish cow!" He was right in my face, screaming at me. My body refused to do anything but stand and shake.

"You had no right to just leave me without telling me anything! I am supposed to be your boyfriend!"

This is when my anger flared into life and melted all of the icy fear. I look his straight in the eye and stood up straighter.

"You are not my boyfriend," I informed him, fuming. "I dumped you long ago when I found out what a jackass you are!" I screamed.

His punch made me fall to the floor. I clutched my cheek as it began to throb painfully. I should have seen that coming. I should have controlled my anger. Harry glared down at me and all I wanted to do was cower away. The anger I had felt before had been replaced with a fresh icy sheet of fear.

I couldn't count how many times this had happened before. I should have known better. He was stronger than me. He was violent and cruel, yet I was the only one that ever saw this side of him. Nobody else even noticed. Nobody ever saw the bruises, or even the cuts. Nobody cared. To everyone else he was just a bit of a bad boy, nothing scary. But to me he was a monster.

He held out his hand to help me up. There was nothing I could do but accept it and stand up. I didn't want him any angrier than he was. He pulled me into his arms and held me far too tightly. My arms hung at my sides, refusing to return the embrace.

"Now, now, I know you don't mean that. You love me," insisted Harry. I didn't say a word. If I said anything he was sure to hurt me again. I was better keeping my mouth shut. Safer.

Taking my hand he led me back inside the hall. I followed along obediently. Everyone looked up as we re-entered, and most eyes zeroed in on our grasped hands. I squirmed under their gaze and wished I could yank my hand away. I didn't want to be here. My eyes first found Hikaru's. I caught the flicker of hurt in his eyes and it made me feel ashamed that I was too weak to stand up to the monster holding my hand. I could understand why he would be hurt. It seemed cruel to have gone on a date with him just a couple of days ago and now suddenly be holding another guys hand, with no explanation.

I promised myself that I would explain it to him. That's if he ever spoke to me again. Or if Harry let me out of his sight. After all I had thought that I was safe living in a different country, that he would never find me. But he did. Just as I settled into my new, safe life, he came charging in to ruin it. I hated him right at that moment. I hated life and how it ruined things. I hated love. But most of all I hated myself for not being able to deal with him. I hated being scared.

Back at home…

I crept up to my room silently, hoping nobody would follow me. But I had no such luck. Azalea followed right behind me, plopping down on my bed. I tried to pretend she wasn't there by clearing things up in my already clean room. Just as I started refolding my clothes, she finally got annoyed and cleared her throat to get my attention.

Gritting my teeth I turned to her. Tare must have wandered into the room because he was on the bed with her, being tickled behind the ear. Azalea was staring at me harshly. I wanted to ignore her again, but I knew I had to at least reassure her.

"What is going on? Who is Harry? Why are you acting so…so… jumpy?" she asked, calm.

I plastered a happy smile on my face to reassure her.

"Nothing is going on. Harry is an old… um… boyfriend," I winced. Azalea saw it. "He… is just… a lot to handle. But it will be okay. I am sure he will being going home soon." I prayed he was booking tickets already, but somehow I doubted that.

"What do you mean by a lot to handle?" she asked.

"Well uhm… he can get a bit carried away with his emotions… and… _people_ sometimes get hurt, you know. Uh, I mean nothing major. He can just be a little harsh sometimes. Everything will be fine!" I was trying to convince myself as much as I was Azalea. I could feel the smile on my face slowly begin to crack, so I turned away.

It wasn't long before Azalea gave up and left. I felt bad for lying to her, but I didn't want her to worry.

Not long after that I lay down in bed to try and get some sleep. It had been such a wonderful day… shame it had to be ruined by the mess that is my past.

…

Two months dragged agonizingly by. I don't think I can recall any amount of time that was as bad as then. Harry decided he wasn't going to be leaving Japan until I had decided to go back with him. Which wasn't ever going to happen. Meaning I had to find a way to get rid of him before he ruined my new life completely.

The worst part about the entire two months was not the harsh words, the worried stares or even the bruises and cuts all caused by Harry's presence. It was the effect he had on my friendships. The only time I got to see the host club was quick glances in the hall. My lunch times were controlled by the endless calls, which at first I had tried to avoid until Harry broke my finger in punishment. I blamed it on a fall. Everybody was none the wiser. I missed the friends I didn't get to see in class, and even the ones I did have in my class. Hikaru had avoided me ever since the day Harry got angry seeing me talking to him, and shouted at him, complaining how he was trying to steal his girlfriend. I wanted desperately to explain things to Hikaru, but I didn't know how to without risking him getting hurt. No doubt, if Harry saw me talking to him again, he would go after Hikaru. I didn't want any of my friends getting hurt by him, so I just had to not let it concern them. To hide everything and go along with Harry's horrible, selfish little games.

At first Azalea was worried about the growing distance between my friends and I. That was until the day I had screamed at her, telling her to stay out of my business. I hated hurting all of my friends, but it was necessary to protect them. I had to isolate myself.

* * *

**Most uninspired chapter EVER! I have been far too happy lately to write this. Plus Ash keeps distracting me with new anime! Please review, and be happy :D**

**Silvana**

**x**


	17. Chapter 16

**Azalea's POV**

It's been a few months since Harry's presence at the concert. It's been difficult for me to communicate with him as he doesn't seem to speak much Japanese and I only speak a little English. It's alright for my Dad and Ardea, they obviously speak it fluently. They're always having conversations over the dinner table that I don't understand. I seem to have been forgotten about by the both of them since Saint Harry arrived to stay. I was hoping he would go home soon.

I don't have to speak much English to know that I'm not keen on Harry. He's very possessive of Ardea and she doesn't exactly look comfortable when he's around – which is nearly always. I've tried to ask her about it many times, but I always get the same answer.

"It's fine – why don't you mind your own business?" Ardea snapped. She had never snapped like that at me before so I knew that I should just leave it alone.

That incident had been a month ago. I barely see Ardea at school. In lessons, she doesn't really talk to anyone – especially Hikaru. She has been extremely distant from him since Harry and Hikaru had had an argument that ended with Hikaru being threatened (in English of course, it seems that everyone besides me can speak the damn language).

I have no idea where she sits at lunch. I always call her to find out where she goes, but her phone is always engaged. I never think to ask her when I get home as Harry's always attached to her side. I suppose that I could say quite a few things to her around Harry as he wouldn't understand me, but I don't feel any-more comfortable around him than Ardea appears to.

Kaoru sits and talks to me more at lunch now, apparently Hikaru has gone back to his sulky, selfish ways – the way he was before they both joined the host club. Somehow, I could never have imagined either of the twins being sulky and selfish as they were always so fun to be around – but I had seen it with my own eyes. Hikaru sits in the corner, always in a mood at something.

I knew why and it made me feel sorry for him. He did like Ardea, this proved it. They had just been on a date and I had though that they were finally getting closer, then Harry appeared and everything went down the drain. It must have heart, but I didn't see why Hikaru didn't make more of an effort with her. He couldn't have been that scared of Harry - he hadn't seemed it when they'd been arguing.

"I'm worried about her," I sighed to Kaoru who stopped shovelling food into his mouth. Pig. "She's starting to get quieter at home now as well."

But before he could reply, he was interrupted by a different voice – one filled with bitterness.

"It's her choice; she can do what she wants. She clearly doesn't care about us that much." Hikaru said and I felt my temper start to simmer. It seemed that although I hadn't wanted to vent out my anger on anyone, it was going to be Hikaru. Unfortunately for him.

"Then you are just like her aren't you? I don't see you making an effort," I replied and I saw each of the host club go silent. Awkward. Hikaru didn't answer me, so I carried on, letting out my anger in spurts of angry words. I hadn't realised how much Harry's being around had annoyed me. I knew that he was the reason that Ardea was becoming more and more distant with all of us, but it seemed that I was almost as resentful as Hikaru was. I had effectively lost my best friend after all.

"You just sit there all day, every day like she has just slapped you. Sour and bitter. If you are that bothered that she's gone then why don't you do something about it?" I asked and once everything I had wanted to say was released from my system, I felt myself cool and I took a deep breath feeling a small sense of relief.

Hikaru was silent once again; he stood up, took his things and walked away without saying anything. Everyone stared after him, and Honey broke the silence.

"Mori! I dropped my cake on the floor!" He exclaimed and Mori, seemingly un-amused proceeded to clean it up. After a while, everybody started talking once again but Kaoru and I sat in silence. I'm sure that he was being thoughtful and concerned for his brother, whereas I rather shallowly just wanted to know what Hikaru was going to do next.

"_Would all students proceed to the assembly hall immediately,"_ a nasal voice in the tannoy announced. Everyone, rather confused made their way over. At that moment, Ardea ran up and continued to walk beside me.

"Do you know what this is about?" I asked her, but she just shook her head.

We all took our seats in silence as the head-teacher stood up on the stage. He eyes were filled with worry and he had bags under them that showed how tired he was. In the last two weeks he looked like he had aged about 10 years. A low murmur of whispers filled the hall once we were all seated as to what could be wrong and the rest of the teachers tried to hush down the students.

"We have some rather bad news for you all," he started sadly. "A record of extremely low exam scores for all the students at Ouran Academy has been uncovered by an outside source and unless we can improve this terms exam marks, Ouran will face closure." As he said closure, I heard a small simultaneous gasp from everyone in the hall. Nobody had been expecting that, we had always thought that we had done well. I supposed that if we had bad exam scores, the school would cover it up so that they didn't lose clients – as that's who the students really were to them. I looked over at the rest of the group who were all exchanging glances. Who had uncovered such bad marks that could shut down the school? What had they been looking for that had found these scores?

Even Ardea seemed back to her usual self at the moment, exchanging a worried glance with me before returning back to the weird state she had been in lately and looking back down to her strangely bruised hands. I hadn't asked where they had come from as she would probably snap at me again but they were such a bizarre shape that I would _have_ to ask her as soon as I remembered once we got home.

The assembly was the last thing that happened at school – the head-teacher was letting the students go home early to revise for their exams. As we all stood up, Ardea spoke to me.

"I've left my bag in my classroom, don't wait for me." She said and I nodded even though she was behind me and I walked alone to leave the building to take the car home.

Then I wondered how she was going to get home, she had left her coat at home and it was freezing outside so I couldn't let her walk. However, I didn't much like the idea of walking in an empty school to go back and get her. I stopped and looked around and saw Mori with Honey in tow.

"Would you please come with me to get Ardea?" I asked them both, "I don't want to go back alone and it's too…eerie." I explained and Honey happily agreed, dragging Mori behind him whether he wanted to go or not.

We didn't really talk about anything serious – more just about what Honey was going to eat once he got home. As we got to the classroom, we could hear someone with a low, dark voice speaking… English. Harry. He had only come to our school once before but this time his voice sounded threatening. It was hard to describe it when I didn't understand what he was saying.

Mori opened the door and Ardea turned round with tears threatening to fall and a bright red patch on her cheek.

Had Harry just _hit_ her?

* * *

**So… that was the end of my chapter, it took ages to write because Silvana and I had exams and I had to do lots of revision. It's short as well because I couldn't think what to write. But anyway! Review for us! Thank you :D**

**Ash =3**


	18. Chapter 17

**Ardea's POV**

I stared in horror as Azalea, Honey and Mori came through the door. I turned away from them to look out of the window, hoping they wouldn't see the bright red mark on my cheek. I forced back the tears that burned in my throat and stung my eyes. Nobody had ever seen Harry hit me; I wouldn't put them in that kind of danger. I didn't want him going after anyone else to keep them quiet.

Harry hadn't seemed to notice the trio that had slipped quietly through the door. I had only noticed them because I had flinched away. Harry continued to talk down at me in a dark, frightening tone. The others stood by the doorway silently, and I was just waiting to hear the door click shut as they left before I turned back. But Harry had other plans. Grabbing my chin he tugged my face roughly to get me to look at him. I glared at him angrily, and tried to make it look like I had the situation under control, even though Harry and I both knew I didn't. But Azalea might believe it. Hopefully she would just leave it be.

I pulled away from Harry sharply.

"Get your hands off me," I spat at him. His eyes burned with a hot putrid flame. A wave of nausea cast down upon me. I knew what was coming next, and this time there was nothing I could do to stop people seeing. I couldn't protect my friends this time.

Harry's hand clenched into a fist, and he raised it above his head. I tensed in anticipation as his fist swung down and connected with my face. Pain exploded through my jaw as his fist made contact and I was vaguely aware of the force knocking me to the floor.

I could hear Azalea's muffled shriek and I knew that Harry would now be turning around to realise they had seen the whole thing. I clenched my aching jaw and screwed my eyes shut wishing that they hadn't been there. Wishing that Harry wasn't as powerful as he was.

Honey let out a battle cry and my eyes flew open as I watched him leap at the huge figure who watched his leap, untroubled. I could do nothing but watch in horror as the cute boy flung himself at Harry.

But it wasn't Honey who got hurt. No, it was Harry. I watched in disbelief as Harry almost flew across the room after impact with Honey's foot. Faster than I thought possible, Honey was across the room, beating the crap out of Harry. Mori was close behind him, keeping Harry down too, whilst also trying to control Honey.

I could do little but watch as my friends tore down the mass that had been shadowing my life for so long. The person I thought was unbreakable was finally getting a taste of his own medicine. A sliver of triumph crept through my body, gradually growing brighter. Until I caught site of a furious looking Azalea storming over to me, at which point I wished I had a shell to hide in.

But alas, I am not a turtle, so I had to face the tsunami that was my dear friend Zaylie.

"Why the hell didn't you tell us what was going on?" she demanded, standing over me with her hands on her hips. I sat where I was silently as she glared. By this point Mori was dragging an unconscious Harry out of the room to who knows where, Honey trailing behind him, decidedly pleased with himself.

"Why on earth would you not tell anybody about this?" shouted Azalea. I cringed at the harsh tone of voice.

"This is my problem. Nobody else should have to deal with it. Nobody else needs to get hurt," I whispered, too afraid to speak any louder against my furious friend. When she was angry it was like you were unfortunate enough to have run into a dragons cave and now you were going to get burned to a crisp.

"You stupid little… You have friends! People are here to help you! Stop trying to be the hero by protecting everyone and grow up," she spat. I blanched at the truth in her words.

All of the happier thoughts that had come from the slight triumph over Harry were swept away as my composure crumbled and I burst into tears.

"I-I'm sorry… I just… just… I didn't want anyone to get hurt," I sobbed. Burying my face in my hands, I wiped away the tears streaming down my face.

Silently Azalea sat down beside me as I cried out all of the hurt from the past month. I was glad that Azalea didn't hug me, which would have made me feel worse. Instead her strong steady silence comforted me more.

Eventually the tears subsided and Azalea led me out of the school and home.

Azalea wandered off around back to talk to the drivers about something or other, whilst I went into the house, quiet and sad. I went to go upstairs, but stopped when I heard shouting from the kitchen. Uncle Thomas was still at work, so did that mean it was two of the servants arguing? How strange.

I made my way into the kitchen and nearly collapsed when I saw Harry standing there, looming over someone I couldn't see properly. Harry's back was to me, but as I squeaked in fear, he turned to face me. I shrank back out of the room, hoping I would at least make it to my room before he caught me. Then Hikaru stepped around Harry, looking furious. My eyes widened as I realised just how bad this situation was.

My first instinct was to flee, but I knew I couldn't just leave Hikaru there with him. I stood my ground and pulled myself together. I glared at Harry hotly.

"Get out," I snarled. Confusion swept across Harry's face. There had always been about 1% brain, 99% muscle in his head.

"I don't want you here, get out now, Harry." I said every slowly and carefully, the fear inside me masked by the anger I felt at Harry for everything he had done.

"What are you talking about, sugar?" he asked, eyes wide and puppy like. I cringed at the horrible nickname.

"I don't want you in my life. I haven't for a long time."

Something seemed to click in Harry's mind, and suddenly he was furious.

"What the hell are you saying you stupid bitch. It's your fault you get hurt. You're a dirty cheating whore," spat Harry.

"Hey! Show some respect asshole!" shouted Hikaru who had moved forward. Harry spun to look at him.

"This is all your fault anyway! I know she cheats on me with you and your friends. She is a dirty little slut. I have seen you all together in school. You can barely keep your hands off her!" he said coldly.

"Wait," I cut in, "What do you mean you have seen us? You watch me in school?" The thought made me feel sick. This guy was obsessed.

"I have to. Or you would end up with people like him," Harry jabbed a finger in Hikaru's direction, "When you are _mine._"

"You are a deluded idiot. I don't have the slightest bit of interest in you Harry. I am not your girlfriend and I haven't been since I dumped you the first time. Why can't you seem to understand that?"

Harry charged towards me, hand rising to hit me. I shut my eyes and pulled my arms up over my head to protect myself, crouching in a low position. When the impact didn't come, I opened my eyes to see Hikaru standing in front of me. He and Harry were glaring at each other, fighting out some battle with their vicious stares.

"Stay the hell away from her, or I swear you will spend the rest of your days locked in the darkest pit of a cell I can find." Hikaru's voice was cold and starched.

Harry bristled and I knew he wanted to hit Hikaru. But then his jaw tensed shut and his shoulders relaxed from their fighting position.

"You win this time. But she isn't yours yet. And just remember, I will always be the one who had her first. She was in my arms long before yours." Harry's smile was cruel, his voice filled with venom.

Hikaru bristled visibly at his comment. Harry smirked at his reaction and began to make his way out of the door, hopefully finally leaving for good.

I stared after him in a state of disbelief. I couldn't believe he had actually backed down. How could such a threat have worked on him? It couldn't be happening. Yet, here I was watchign the door swing shut behind him.

The tension and fear seemed to wash out of me, taking most of my energy with it. I stumbled over to a chair. Hikaru turned to face me, the furious expression still on his face.

_He looks so sexy when he's angry._

I shook the inappropriate thought out of my head, as Hikaru's angry glare remained on me. I just watched him sadly, exhausted.

"Why have you been so selfish this whole time?" demanded Hikaru

"Please, Hikaru, not now." All I wanted was to curl up and go to sleep.

"No, Ardea, we need to talk now. Do you think that was the right way to treat your friends? You abandon everyone, including your best friend who has been worried sick about you, for some guy you don't even seem to like."

A wave of fury swept through me, making my insides burn bright and awake.

"I didn't do this because I wanted to!" I screamed. Rising to my feet I stepped up to Hikaru with a hostile posture. "I didn't ask for him to come to Japan and ruin my life. I didn't ask for him to do _this_ to me!" I yanked up my sleeve to show Hikaru the deep purple bruises and the one long cut up my forearm from Harry's pocketknife.

Hikaru paled when he saw my injuries and the anger left his eyes.

"Ardea… I didn't know… I thought-,"

"I don't care what you thought!" I interrupted. "I am fed up with people thinking this is just my fault! I am not the _only_ one in the wrong here! None of you _ever_ tried to talk to _me_! None of you bothered about the person that was supposed to be your friend!" Tears were streaming down my face, and I wiped them away angrily, humiliated that I was crying when I was supposed to be angry.

"But-," began Hikaru, but once again I cut him off.

"There are no buts! At least I can say that I was trying to protect you all! What can you say! What possible reason could justify just leaving me to that… that… monster?"

"Will you listen for a second!" snapped Hikaru. Surprised, I shut my mouth and sank back into a chair.

"We _tried _to help you. We _tried_ to talk to you. But all you ever did was snap at us and remain secretive. There is only so much you can do when someone you thought was your friend decides to start telling you nothing." Hikaru's words rang through me, painfully honest and true. My heart sank as I realised all of my mistakes.

"I… couldn't tell you… I really couldn't" I mumbled.

"Why? What on earth could have stopped you?" demanded Hikaru.

I looked up at him all of the anger before, now replaced by a deep, cutting sorrow.

"Because I was scared," I admitted.

Hikaru's anger dissipated as he watched me. I continued to look into his eyes, my own eyes spilling over with more tears than I thought I had left in me.

Hikaru stepped towards me and wrapped me in his arms, whispering apologies into my hair. I gripped his shirt, pulling him closer, sobs now wracking my chest.

He slowly pulled me up and led me into the living room and onto the sofa without letting me go. We sat together, wrapped in each other's arms and I cried into his chest. He held me silently, his face buried deep in my hair.

For what felt like forever we sat there together, me crying out every piece of hurt left in my heart. Eventually my tears grew silent but I still didn't move away from Hikaru. I didn't want him to ever let go of me.

A dark cloud of sleep drifted towards me, and I let it surround me until I slept quietly in the arms of the boy that I now knew I truly loved. My heart knew that. Azalea knew that. Hell, most of my friends had probably realised it by now. The only person left to find out was Hikaru. And as I dreamed, I promised myself that one day, I would tell him. And after that I wouldn't ever stop.

* * *

**We called him Uncle Thomas right? I hope so; because I forgot XD Anyway, please review! :)**

**Silvana  
x**


	19. Chapter 18

**Azalea's POV**

The car ride home was a reticent one. I couldn't find anything to say to Ardea and I knew that she wouldn't want to talk anyway. She wistfully looked out of the window as I stared on at the driver, replaying the incident over and over in my head. Stupid girl – how long had she been putting up with all his abuse before we had found her? No wonder she had been so reserved since he had been brought back into her life.

I don't think that Ardea had noticed, but I had sent a text to Hikaru explaining what had happened. Doubtless, he would be angry. Furious. But there wasn't much that could be done, and it would relieve Ardea of that hassle of trying to explain to one more person just what had been going on. When we got home, Ardea went straight in whilst I had to instruct the drivers on where to go since the new drive was blocked. It should of only taken 5 minutes – but the driver couldn't seem to process what I was telling him – or maybe I wasn't speaking clearly enough. Whatever the reason, it slowed me down and made me take at least 10.

On going inside, I went through the side door and walked quietly round to see Hikaru and Ardea curled up on the sofa. I didn't want to disturb them – they looked so peaceful, and God knows it was probably the most comforted Ardea had felt in a while, so I crept upstairs to my room to let the rest of the host club know that she was alright and Harry was no-where to be found.

Everyone was relieved to finally know the cause of her hostility towards them, but we were all wary of what would happen next. I had no doubt in my mind that the first day Ardea went back to school there would be an awkward few moments.

But Ardea didn't go back to school the next day, which meant that she avoided the whispers and rumours about what had happened. Somehow, everyone at school had heard about Harry. No-one truthfully knew that the information they had was true, and some of it was, while some of it wasn't. The most elaborate rumour I had heard was that Mori had claimed his undying love for her and he and Harry had basically fought to the death, resulting in Harry's death. Seriously. What is the likelihood that THAT is true?

It was a tiring and slightly irritating day with everyone asking me questions about it – not that I gave them any answers. I thought it best to leave the questions to Ardea. What she decided to tell them was none of my business. Plus, we hadn't really talked since we found her being beaten to a pulp – she had spent the rest of the night snuggled up with Hikaru. They were still asleep when I woke up in the morning to go to school.

The host club were missing it's twincest today, and it hadn't made Tamaki, Kyouya, Kaoru or the customers very happy. It was rather amusing when I watched Tamaki twirl around melodramatically, claiming how much he was missing a component of his "family" while fan-girls swooned around him. Kyouya just spent the day grumbling about expenses and loss of profit whilst Kaoru just looked lost. It seemed to be working out okay though, Kaoru just over-exaggerated his missing his brother. A few fake tears and a little whimper and the usual twincest fans were squealing. It actually gave me a slight pang of jealousy to watch in the end. I hated the feeling, so I tried to distract myself by eating a lot of cake. A LOT of cake. I could have given Honey a run for his money.

"Should you really be eating all those sweets?" Kyouya asked bitterly. He was writing up something in that little book of his again, it could have been the inventory of everything that the Host Club used, it could have been a love letter. Who knows? No-one looks in there.

"Yes." I snapped back and continued to stuff my face with a sponge cake with strawberry icing and cream on top.

"It's costing the host club a fortune, we'll have to start charging customers to eat." He complained and I shot a glare up at him. He seemed undazed behind his glasses.

"I'm not a customer."

With that, Kyouya walked off still mumbling something incoherent to himself and I went back to eating.

At the end of the day, I decided to walk home. I felt fat after eating all that cake. It wasn't pleasant at all. I could have been in a nice warm car and within minutes, back home again. But instead, I had decided to walk home. It made me feel a little nauseous actually. Far too cold for me.

I walked through the big iron gates to my house and through the door to find Hikaru and Ardea eating and talking quietly between themselves. When they saw me, Ardea gave a small smile and Hikaru gave a slight wave. More food. Blurgh.

And then I threw up over the carpet.

* * *

**So, a very short chapter, had unbelievable problems with laptop etc.. :D But anyway, finally got it up now! So... ^_^**

**Ash =3**


	20. Chapter 19

**Ardea's POV**

The servants cleared up the mess quickly, whilst I pulled Azalea up to her on-suite bathroom. I cleaned her up and gave her some tablets to stop her being sick anymore. We didn't say anything the whole time. Soon enough Azalea was in bed and dozing off.

I left her room, closing the door quietly behind me. Closing my eyes I slumped against her door and sighed deeply. I smoothed out the creases in my forehead and pulled my hair back into a ponytail with a band from my wrist.

"You okay?" The sound of Hikaru's voice made me jump about three feet in the air. I opened my eyes to look up at him.

"Fine. Just need to relax. I don't get a lot of me time anymore," I sighed.

"Oh… you want me to leave?" he asked, looking disappointed.

"No! I mean that's not what I meant. It would just be nice to do something that I would _enjoy_ doing for once."

"Well… as soon as the spring exams are over we have the holidays." Hikaru smiled.

"Hey your right!" A smile tugged at my lips too as I thought of all the possibilities. Then I remembered something. Something important.

"And it will be my birthday," I grinned. Hikaru blanched and looked at me apologetically. I guess he had forgotten… well, no biggie.

Reaching out a hand, Hikaru pulled me up and we walked to my room, talking of birthdays, spring and things that might actually be fun.

**-The next day-**

Azalea and I marched into Ouran High, arms linked, showing a strong front. But it wasn't long before we were in fits of giggles over the weird way we were marching, and the even weirder looks we received.

Azalea had recovered from what I found out was a huge binge on cakes. No wonder she had puked.

As we approached our first class the crowds seem to become thicker, everyone moving in the same direction. Huge amounts of people crowded around our classroom door. Glancing at Azalea in confusion, I began to push my way through the hoard, while Azalea muttered civilities behind me.

Reaching the front of the crowd I finally got a view of what everyone was gawping at. Reginald stood on a desk, a smug expression plastered to his face and he read from a long list in his hand.

"…Aggie Martin, failed biology last year by over twenty marks. Iwamura Takeyo, failed mathematics last term. Tanaka Heishirô Ujinobu failed…." Reginald droned on and on in a monotone voice, his smugness only shown by the dirty little smirk on his face.

I was so tempted to kick the table he was standing on right over, so he'd fall on his skinny ass. Instead I settled for screaming at him.

"What the hell do you think you are doing?" I yelled. Reginald spun around, startled as I glared at him. How words choked off when he saw Azalea. A smarmy smile spread across his face and Azalea squirmed beside me.

Reginald stepped down from the desk to talk to us. Squaring my shoulders I pulled myself to my full height to try and meet him face to face, but with no avail. He was _huge_. Towering smarmy annoying freak. Gosh I hated him.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Reginald's voice sounded like sludge. "A beautiful princess," he smiled at Azalea, "And her moronic dog," he smirked at me.

My hand acted before my brain thought it through.

The loud slap echoed across the now silent classroom. Everyone stared at me in amazement.

_Idiot, idiot, idiot! Do you want to get yourself chucked out of this school?_ I mentally hit myself for being so stupid. _Nobody_ spoke to me like that and expected no retaliation. I wasn't one to be walked all over.

Reginald turned to me furiously, face turning red partly in anger and partly from the slap.

"How _dare_ you touch me you filthy commoner!" Reginald was spitting he was so angry.

All I wanted was to hit him again. But I knew I couldn't. But I wasn't backing down. No way in hell.

"You have no right to even pretend to say that to me. You know nothing about me. You are the disgusting creep who almost tried to rape my best friend!" I spat.

"Shut your mouth. Everyone knows you are nothing but a stupid little poor girl, brought up like a mongrel."

I launched at him, only to be pulled back by strong arms. I struggled in the grip but whoever had hold of me was too strong.

I turned to screech at whoever had stopped me, only to see Tamaki looking at me, disappointed. All of the fight left me instantly and I slumped in his arms. Everything I had built here, all of the friendships, the happiness, all of which I still had to earn back from the Harry incident, was burning around me. And I was the one lighting the fire.

In that one look Tamaki reminded me who I was. His eyes pleaded with me, showed me the fool I was making of myself.

Though my fire had been blown out, Azalea had been kindling a fire of her own. And she was about to blow right in Reginald's smugly smirking smarmy face.

"You stuck up little… how dare you say that to my best friend!" stormed Azalea. Reginald started at her in complete disbelief and hurt. "Why are you in _my_ school, hurting _my_ friends? What right do you have to do that?" she spat.

Reginald seemed to pull himself together and shut his gaping jaw enough to answer her. "I am simply informing the rest of the school about the unfair routines of Ouran. There are dirty little _rats_ in this school that don't deserve to be here. Students who don't get the required grades, but are covered by the school because of their money," Reginald informed us, loud and proud of his discoveries.

"So it was you…" Azalea whispered, dangerously quiet. "You were the one who revealed all of those bad grades? You are the one that want to have Ouran shut down."

Reginald nodded smugly. He was obviously very happy with himself.

"But why?" I asked. He glared at me before turning back to answer my question to Azalea.

"Because this school is a disgrace. Money may be much in life, but what is it worth without the breeding and knowledge to accompany it? That is why we need this place shut down. It is the thorn in the side of the people who actually have half a brain, unlike the other remaining idiots. However, Whitewood is willing to offer spaces to anyone who can pass the entrance exam." Reginald began to climb up onto the table again, ready to address everyone else who was watching. "So whoever is willing to leave the school _before_we shut it down, we are accepting applications from A* students right now. So run on down to Whitewood and join the people _worth_ having money."

Azalea watched him in horror as he advertised his damned school. And people were actually considering it. They were scared that Ouran might actually be shut down, and they needed a new school to go to.

I pulled myself to my feet and tugged myself and Tamaki up onto two desks.

"Stop it! We will not let this happen!" I shouted at every student, who now had their attention focused on me and Tamaki.

"She's right," agreed Tamaki. "We will do everything to stop this tyrant from shutting down our beloved school. So many of you are happy here in Ouran. We are one huge family. Though some of us may have failed once or twice, we have to keep trying. Life is about learning and today we are learning that we must all help each other to save our school." There was a pause, before everyone began cheering and clapping.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

"So how about we kick this idiot out!" I cheered. A battle cry rose up through the room. Damn. I didn't know these posh kids had it in them.

Reginald fled out of the room with one last longing glance behind him at Azalea. He obviously hadn't gotten over his infatuation with her yet.

"This is it! We must pass the spring exams! All of us!" shouted Tamaki, rousing another round of cheers. Jeez, this lot were hyped up. Tamaki was definitely leading the charge. All we needed now was a plan.

* * *

**It was tempting to turn this into an epic fantasy story… I blame the new music :3**

**Silvana**


	21. Chapter 20

**Azalea's POV**

Today was the day we needed to start revising seriously for the spring exams. The only problem was, it wasn't us that were failing our exams – it was the rest of the school. So we needed a way to get everyone _else_ to revise. Tamaki had told us that he was going to think of a plan, no doubt that would mean the most expensive and elaborate way to get things done – but he had been far more productive than anyone else so I guess I couldn't complain. No doubt that Kyouya would be burdened with the task of sorting out the money and making sure they didn't spend too much. It's his own fault really, he assigns himself that task. I wonder what he actually does for fun.

I inhaled as I zipped up the ludicrous yellow dress – I was sure that Nora was supposed to have been designing a prototype which she would show to the Principle wasn't she? What was going on there? All she did nowadays was design clothes – surely she had enough time to finish the uniform by now!

Ardea had been busy discussing what I could only describe as 'battle plans' with Tamaki. The pair of them were more alike than they realised. Ardea definitely had a more... heated temper, but they were both excitable and dramatic and in certain situations, Ardea could be more hyperactive than Tamaki himself. When Reginald had been bellowing out the dodgy results of different students at Ouran, Ardea and Tamaki had taken charge of a strangely rowdy crowd and geared them up to fight back. That was a positive move I guess – it definitely frightened Reginald off, for now. But it wouldn't be long before he was back to wreak more 'Reginald Chaos'.

At school, Tamaki ordered the whole of the host club, plus Ardea and I. I had been desperate to know what he had come up with and since Ardea knew, I thought I might get something out of her. But she wouldn't let slip a single, teeny, tiny detail. She just buzzed around happily. Oh well, at least I knew it was a good plan, whatever it was.

"Ardea and I have come up with a plan," Tamaki started, although I didn't miss the little 'humph' from Kyouya behind me. I should have known he'd have some sort of discrete involvement in the plan.

"The Host Club are going to be open as usual for our customers, but we're going to be doing revision sessions at the same time. As we're the top of our classes, young ladies will be desperate for some tutoring from their favourite host!" He said, his voice started raising at the end as he got more excited.

"How are you going to do your routines? Surely Honey's 'Loli Shota' look will be ruined if he has brains far more mature than his face? And what about the twins – how are they going to do their twincest routine if they're tutoring?" I asked, annoyed at myself for poking holes in his plan.

"We have our ways," Kaoru said with a wink. I tried not to blush as I though about how I liked that more than I should. No way was I going to become a 'Twincest Fangirl'. I noticed Hikaru smirk out of the corner of my eye and I seriously hoped it wasn't a my reaction.

"Okay, what about the boys? They're hardly going to want to revise with the host club are they?" I asked but Tamaki's grin only got wider.

"We've got that covered too!" He said with a grin and revealed a giant board underneath a cloth (although I have no idea where the board came from).

It was a prototype of a café. It was going to be placed in the only other empty room in the school and by the looks of the uniform – it was maid café.

"It's called …...!" He exclaimed with a large gesture of the arm towards the board. "It will be a maid café for the boys of Ouran to go and revise and have something to eat whilst lovely ladies in maid outfits serve them and help them with their revision!"

Poor girls. I know most of them were gentlemanly here – they wouldn't want to damage their family reputation, but it wouldn't stop them from having the occasional peek.

"Of course, if they don't do revision, there will be a bodyguard on hand to throw them out. Which of course will be supplied by my father who has looked over and approved the idea." He added proudly, glad to do something that his father would find useful to the school.

"What about the maids – won't they need to revise?" Hikaru asked, thinking hard about the plan.

"That's why we've got some revision sheets to put on trays that they can read as they go round. Of course, the two maids in charge will be wearing slightly different outfits and helping the boys to revise, the serving maids should pick some things up as they go round." He explained.

Oh no. As the cogs turned in my head I realised what was going to happen. Ardea seemed to work it out as well – he must have failed to mention that part of the plan to her. Of course, I was a bit ashamed of myself for not thinking of it earlier. If Tamaki had asked me here, I was obviously part of some plan. Whilst he was busy running the host club – who would be around to run the café? It had to be people with good grades, it would have to be girls who could wear the uniform. It had to be Ardea and I.

"No, no way. I would rather have 'snuggy time' revising with the host club than do that!" I told him and he put on a face of faux shock – he must have known I would resist. I looked over at Ardea who was eyeing up the outfit for the 'hostess' maids. Great, she liked the idea. I nudged her on the arm, and she looked around absent mindedly like she hadn't even been listening.

"Yeah, I agree." She said, siding with me although she wasn't sure what she was agreeing to. I tried to refrain from rolling my eyes when Tamaki approached us both with his 'host face' on.

"Really?" He said, stroking both our faces in turn. "Does a member of the host club have some admirers?" I scowled and looked away – his princely type was not my thing, it was far too cheesy for me. "And lovely ones at that." He commented, to which I slapped his hand away.

"Tamaki," I grumbled, sure I was bright red. "You know what I meant," but he wasn't going to give up that easily.

"Well it's not me, then is it Honey and Mori?" He asked, dancing around the pair as Honey looked up at us with his cute stare and Mori just did what he usually did.

"No, surely not – maybe Kyouya?" He asked, but it was clear neither of us reacted. Then he jumped up and around to the twins.

"Of course! How silly of me not to realise sooner! You are both fans of the twincest aren't you?" He seemed as though he was annoyed with himself for not working it out sooner, of course he wasn't, but most of his customers wouldn't of realised this. I ignored him and Ardea just rolled her eyes at him as if to disagree with him. The twins seemed to fall for it but Tamaki wasn't convinced. A small smile that reached up across his face and to his sparkling blue eyes – far more convincing and heart-wrenching than the big grins he made usually – tugged at his lips. He shrugged and moved on.

"So obviously we want you to be the hostesses. You won't be serving food, you'll go round to ask if the customers need any help with their revision and such..." and it carried on like that until eventually, the idea wasn't so unappealing anymore. I can't say that I was excited, but it was better than dreading it.

**A week later...**

After a whole week of planning and setting up, the revision sessions for both the host club and …... were in motion. The host club wore Tamaki's version of revision attire, which was clearly just casual and comfortable – but sexy as hell. Well, to be honest, it wasn't very difficult for any of them to look sexy. The maids that were serving wore a classic maids outfit in purple with a white apron whilst Ardea and I (the revision help) were wearing similar outfits but without the puffy sleeves or skirt, ours were pleated – and shorter than something I'd normally wear. Ardea thought they looked cute.

The café was very successful. Boys who wanted to upkeep their family reputation could go to a maid café and it would all be for the sake of revision. Of course, the girls all went to the host club and I always heard positive feedback in class about it. Apparently the twins were doing some kind of act were Kaoru would pretend to be upset when he couldn't do it and (of course) Hikaru would be there to comfort him.

Not going to lie, slightly bitter that I had to miss that.

However, true to his word, Tamaki's father's bodyguard was very efficient. He made sure that all the maids were respected (not that it was entirely necessary with the way the well-behaved boys of Ouran treated them) – of course there was always one who was inappropriate or came in to sit and watch rather than get on with some revision.

Everyone who wanted to learn (which was nearly everyone thanks to Reginald's threats) came along and worked as hard as they could. We could all see a definite improvement in our practise grades – both Ardea and I got A*, but since we had spent more hours in that café than anyone else it wasn't surprising. The lowest anyone really got was a C, which was the lowest we needed to get passing grades. So, as long as the real exams went well, we could all expect to rub our grades in Reginald's face and maybe the whole of Whitewood Academy too.

We didn't see much of the host club while we were running the café revision sessions. We still saw Hikaru and Kaoru in lessons and the occasional lunch time when we weren't cleaning up the café for after school or running a lunch time session for those who had engagements after school.

**Exams...**

Spring exams came before long and we were all anticipating it, hoping for a high mark. Butterflies fluttered round in my stomach to the point where I felt sick. I always had a bit of exam phobia. I skipped breakfast although I knew I shouldn't and didn't actually see Ardea until we got into the car to go to school.

"Nervous?" I asked, hearing the shake of my voice. She nodded and looked out the window. That was the most conversation I had for the rest of the day. As soon as we got to school, we saw everyone in the same state as us. They were morbid and nervous – they weren't quite as optimistic as I had hoped we would be. We all took our seats in complete silence in the examination hall as I looked over at the clock to see the time. Once we were all seated, the woman at the front of the hall wearing straggly hair extensions and a badly shaped suit bellowed out "You may now start the test."

I wrote my name and opened up the book and stifled a laugh. Why had I been worried? Everything we had revised was on the test!

Relief.

* * *

**Muahaha, I think that's the fastest I've ever done a chapter! XD**

**Ash =3**


	22. Chapter 21

**Ardea's POV**

I put my pen down and shut my book, feeling thoroughly proud of myself. There was still about ten minutes left before our allotted test time was up, so I sat back and relaxed for the first time since Reginald had warned us of our failing school.

I daydreamed about how annoyed he would be when he found out that everyone had passed. And I was pretty certain that everyone would, because the café and the host club revision had had a huge turnout, because people could find an excuse to come to something that we all know they really wanted to join anyway.

What a wonderful feeling of triumph.

**…A week later – Friday…**

Despite my confidence when we were taking the exams, that didn't stop me being nervous now that the results were going to be told to us… in front of our entire class.

Azalea had run off on our way to class to talk to some her friends, to see if any of them managed to get their results early. I noticed a certain brunette also going the same way.

Running up to Haruhi I called his name and he turned around to smile at me kindly.

"Yo, Haruhi, how you doing?" I asked smiling. He was always quiet whenever Azalea and me were around, but according to Tamaki he was wonderful… It was kind of like Tamaki had a man crush on him. So I had decided I'm not sure when, to make an effort to be his friend.

"I am good thanks. What do you think your test scores are going to be?" he asked. His voice sounded so… _girly_. How strange that I had never noticed before.

"Hmmm, hopefully I am at least going to pass… I should hope so after all that work in the café," I twitched. Haruhi laughed at me.

"Just be glad you don't have to do it all the time… It's weird having girls fall over you all the time," he smiled.

"Waaait… I thought you volunteered for it? Don't you want to do it?" I asked, not really knowing any of the background to why Haruhi was in the host club.

"Well… not exactly… I owe them a debt. A huge one. I don't have enough money to pay it off on my own," he grimaced. So he wasn't rich? "Besides," he continued, "I like it there… Tama- uh, I mean all of them are really nice. They make me feel welcome," he blushed.

"Awwwh, you are so cute, you know that!" I cried. I couldn't help it; this guy was more like a girl.

"Heh… thanks," he smiled.

"Now I see why they want you in the host club," I laughed.

"That's not the only reason he is in the host club," two voices sniggered in unision.

"It seems that the boss likes Haruhi," began Hikaru.

"Maybe a little more than he should," finished Kaoru. They both gave faces of mock horror.

"Oh no, Hikaru, if they get together," Kaoru cried.

"Then we may lose the host club!" wailed Hikaru.

If they got together? Now I was being weirded out. The twins continued to dance around with horrified looks on their faces. Haruhi just glared at them.

"You two are so melodramatic," I sighed. They both stopped spinning and grinned at Haruhi and I mischievously.

"You want to see melodramatic? Wait until the results!" they sang together, parading off into the classroom. Haruhi rolled my eyes at me and I nodded in agreement. Together we entered the class and took our seats.

The lesson passed by uneventfully, and I didn't take much in whilst I worried about not only my results, but also the rest of the schools.

We finished the lesson early, so the teacher would have time to read out everyone's results. We packed away our things before sitting and waiting for the teacher to begin.

"As most of you know, today you will all be getting your results for the spring exams. There was an issue before the exams that required somewhat… unorthodox revision methods." The teacher glanced around the room distastefully at all of the girls he recognised from the maid café. Including me. "However," he continued, " They seem to paid off. Not a single failure through the entire school."

A huge weight lifted off my shoulders and I cheered along with the rest of the class. The school was safe… for now at least. I was sure that Reginald wouldn't give up that easily. He was far too proud for that.

"Wooooooooo!" cried two voices carrying over the rest of the classroom.

"We did it Hikaru! I am so happy!" Kaoru laughed, hugging his brother.

"You did great Kaoru, I knew you could do it!" Hikaru hugged his brother in return.

"It's only because of your help, Hikaru. I couldn't have done it without all of those… late nights."

Oh dear, it was _that _routine again. Twincest.

"Cut it out you two," huffed Haruhi. They both turned to Haruhi slowly, grins on their faces. I feared for his life when they had that look.

They pulled Haruhi up and placed him between them.

"What's the matter… jealous?" Haruhi flushed bright red and looked to me for help. I shook my head; I wanted no part in this. But it was too late, they both locked onto me and, dragging Haruhi with them, pulled me up to be squished in next to her. I squeaked in surprise as their arms wrapped around us both.

"Azalea… help!" I pleaded to my best friend. The twins heads snapped towards her and soon enough she was squished in too. This was a cramped and awkward position. And it seemed that some Hitachiin fan girls were getting jealous and wanted in too.

"That's enough boys," snapped the teacher. The twins sat down, grinning to themselves, releasing us so we could take our seats again too.

The teacher glared at each of us in turn. "If it wasn't for your help with these scores, you would be in big trouble right now. Anyway, so now I shall announce your scores…"

Azalea, Haruhi, Hikaru, Kaoru and I all got A's. There were a lot of other A's in the class too, as well and a couple of B's and the various C, but nothing below that.

Everyone was in great spirits for the rest of the day, all the way up until the special assembly at the end of the day to congratulate every one of their results.

"First of all I would like to thank everybody for working so hard for the exams. This is the best set of results our school has ever seen," smiled the director, looking at each and everyone of use, proud to be running this school.

"But most of all I think we all need to thank the people running the revision sessions."It was truly stroke of genius, and a very popular one.

"So I have decided to reward you all, gentlemen and young ladies separately. Some of you may have seen a few of our female students wearing a different uniform. This is the new prototype of our uniform, due to be approved for wearing once the holidays are over. However, our original uniform is still an option for anyone who wishes to still wear it.

"For those of you who have not yet seen the new uniform, here is Nora, the designer of the uniform, modelling it."

Nora came up out to the front, blushing wildly as everyone looked at her. The new uniform was like a spin off of the male uniform. It had the same blazer, but with a more fitted, elegant shape. The skirt was black and pleated, with long black socks and ballet flats to compliment it. It looked major cute and I knew that after the holidays, that would be the uniform I would wear. No more cake dress for me!

After a couple or circuits, Nora went back to her seat. The whole hall was buzzing with the voices of people talking about the uniform.

"And or course we cannot forget all the work our young men have done too. So, by popular demand, we have decided not only to make the last week one without any proper lessons, but the maid café will remain open for this remaining week."

I took a double take. This was the first I had heard about that! I turned to look at Azalea and she smiled at me apologetically. So _she _was the one who had agreed to this. Great. I got to spend my rest week in a café, working. At least I enjoyed it there…

… **The next week …**

Monday and Tuesday in the café passed uneventfully, as normal. Customers came in, ate, talked, flirted and left again. It was a nice big social event. I kind of felt just like the host club though… except female. Or perhaps a brothel. Without the 'going too far'.

It wasn't until Wednesday late afternoon that anything interesting happened. And interesting doesn't always mean good.

Reginald waltzed into the café, looking far too happy with himself considering his plan to shut down Ouran had failed.

I glared at him from across the room, but he ignored me, moving over into Azalea's section. He had obviously done his research.

Azalea froze when she saw him. The fury in her seemed to spark as she marched over to him and demanded he leave. But he just laughed, looking her up and down in a way that made _me_ feel sick, let alone Azalea. I marched over to Azalea immediately to back her up.

Reginald watched me distastefully as I approached, before proceeding to ignore me completely.

"So, Azalea, how are you my dear?" asked Reginald, eying Azalea's short skirt.

"Shut up Reginald," spat Azalea.

"Please, darling, call me Reggie," he smiled.

Laughter exploded out of my throat. They way he said it was hilarious. What and idiot. I bet he had sat for hour thinking up that line.

"Fine _Reggie_, but don't call me darling. In fact, don't call me at all, just get out of our café," Azalea told him, as I continued to laugh hysterically, almost rolling on the floor.

"I can't, I have something that I think you should know." Suddenly Reginald was completely serious. I stopped laughing wiping the tears from my eyes.

"Spit it out then," Azalea demanded.

"Not in front of that commoner," Reginald said, looking down his nose at me.

I snorted before turning to Azalea.

"I have to go anyway, I am meeting up with Hikaru after school to plan my birthday party next week. See you later Z." I smiled, ignoring Reginald and gathering my things up.

I wouldn't normally leave her in that kind of situation, but I knew she would be perfectly safe in the still crowded café room. And she looked very curious as to what Reginald had to say. I would get the information out of her later.

I didn't bother to change out of the café uniform. It was cute. I met up with Hikaru, who was in the host club. He was still at the twincest thing when I arrived, so I just watched him, amused. I had to admit to myself, there was something darkly sexy about their routine. At least I wasn't the only one with that thought, lots of girls were squealing.

Tamaki popped up out of nowhere, dragging Haruhi with him. I raised an eyebrow at Haruhi, questioning why he was letting Tamaki just drag him everywhere. He shrugged in answer.

"So Ardea, what brings you to the host club? Have you come to observer my dashing looks?" asked Tamaki. I rolled my eyes. He was so vain.

"Not a chance Tamaki. I am waiting for Hikaru. We are making plans for my birthday," I smiled.

"And you haven't asked me to help!" he cried. Haruhi tried to walk away, but Tamaki pulled him forward.

"Look! Look at poor Haruhi, he looks so upset that you have not invited him!" Actually, Haruhi just looked bored.

"Shut up Tamaki. Both of you are invited. The whole host club is. Hikaru is just going to help me go over some things we can do there, what food to buy and stuff. Azalea is busy with a singing lesson tonight, and my birthday is in a week," I explained.

"So how come you have left it this late?" asked Haruhi.

"Because I didn't know I was having one until Zaylie got me permission a few days ago. So its kind of a mad dash to get everything organised," I moaned, scrunching my eyes in frustration.

"So… is Kaoru going to?" asked Haruhi.

"No… why?" I questioned, confused.

"Well those two go everywhere together… It's strange when he leaves his brother for more then five minutes, let alone a long time after school…" explained Haruhi.

I contemplated this for a moment. It was true that I rarely saw Hikaru without Kaoru, but it wasn't as if it was a rare experience for Hikaru to hang out with me alone. Perhaps he was different with everyone else? But why?

"Maybe it's because he likes you," said Tamaki with a sly smile. I blushed furiously. There was no way he liked me in the way Tamaki was implying.

"Ignore him. Maybe I could help you organise things during the week," offered Haruhi. "Azalea seems like a busy person… she has a huge social life."

I nodded. "That would be a huge help!" I smiled. Looks like I should have made an effort to be Haruhi's friend sooner. He seemed like a nice guy.

"Cool, how about I come around on Tuesday?"

"That would be wonderful!"

At that moment the twins joined out little group.

"Ready to go Ardea?" asked Hikaru. Tamaki gave me another sly smile, but I ignored it, saying my goodbyes and heading out of school with Hikaru.

… **Back at home …**

Hikaru and I sat on my bed, rifling through a bunch of magazines looking at themes and decorations. Hikaru seemed bored looking at all of the girly things.

I threw a magazine and sighed as it hit the wall. I imagined this being more fun than it was. Perhaps I should have just waited for Azalea to help me. At least I may get more done with Haruhi… he seemed slightly more… feminine.

"Sooooooo…" Breaking the silence just made things feel even more awkward. Hikaru looked up at me, a question in his eyes. I shrugged it off.

I picked up another magazine and threw it at Hikaru. It hit his chest and he raised an eyebrow at me. I raised my own eyebrow in a challenge.

As Hikaru grabbed my pillow I leapt off my bed and began to run. We began laughing and giggling as the pillow fight began. I grabbed my own weapon off of the mini sofa in my room. We circled each other, waiting for the other person to make a move before we attacked. I jumped forward first, swinging my pillow. Hikaru dodged it easily, and because my swing put me off balance, he managed to hit me over the head. I managed to stay on my feet, and jump up to try to swipe out his feet with my pillow, but it had little effect. Scrambling to my feet I moved to the other side of the room, watching him warily.

Hikaru flew at me with his pillow and I used he fast, unbalanced movement to dance out of the way of his attack and smash my pillow into his torso. Hikaru laughed, and grabbed me, dragging me to the floor, where I proceeded to shriek as he tickled me, the only thing separating us being the pillow that I was still clutching.

"Mercy, mercy! I beg you!" I cried around my giggles. Hikaru stopped tickling me, but didn't get off. His laugh slowly faded and he looked down at me. His face was only inches from mine. Everything inside me desired to close that gap.

"Funny how you have always known the difference between me and my brother," whispered Hikaru.

"Of course, you two are completely different. Your appearances are the same but your personality's are definitely not," I giggled. The silence surrounded us once again.

The gap between us slowly began to get smaller as Hikaru's face came closer to mine. My bedroom door sprung open and Azalea came in, freezing just inside the door when she saw Hikaru and I sprawled on the floor together, extremely close.

Though the presence of the pillow was considered an annoyance that I wanted away just moments before, I was now glad for it. It certainly improved how the situation must look to Azalea.

Hikaru quickly jumped off me and we scrambled to our feet. I knew my face was a bright shade of red. Hikaru hurriedly said his goodbyes and proceeded to leave, seemingly as embarrassed about the moment, and being caught, as I was.

There were a few moments of awkward silence before Azalea smiled at me knowingly.

"So, what did Reginald want?" I asked before Azalea could ask what happened. She rolled her eyes, seeing my obvious diversion, but choosing to go along with it.

"It's not good," said Azalea, now serious. I quickly cleared my mind so I could focus on my friend and empty to longing thoughts of Hikaru.

"What did he say?" I asked, now all business.

"It was weird. I think he has been watching me." Azalea looked up me, the worry and fear in her eyes obvious. "He said to me that he wasn't happy with me and my relationship with the host club… especially Kaoru. Which is completely ridiculous because there is nothing between me and Kaoru." I didn't believe that for a second, the attraction between those two may be hard to notice, but I hadn't missed it, but I decided not to say anything, just nodding for her to continue.

"He said to me… if I didn't stay away from the host club there would be horrible consequences. He told me he would have Ouran shut down… my friends wouldn't be safe. He would make life hell." Azalea was playing with the hem of her skirt nervously.

"So he threatened you? He has no right. He can do none of those things. That smarmy git is just and obsessive freak who wants you to himself. But you can't let him win," I told her. This was about the millionth time I found myself angry at Reginald. He just couldn't back off and understand that Azalea didn't want him. As long as I was around and the rest of the host club, he would never have her… but perhaps that was why he was threatening to get rid of her friends. Evil git.

"Just forget about him, there is no way he would ever be able to do anything to the host club. They are almost untouchable."

Azalea smiled at me sadly, but she seemed a little more hopeful. I promised I would do whatever it took to get Reginald off of Azalea's back. She was my best friend and I owed her the life I was living now.

"So how are the party plans going? Asked Azalea, shaking Reginald's threats from her mind.

"Heh, we didn't get very far," I blushed, and Azalea raised an eyebrow at me.

"I'll bet…" she smirked.

"Do not say anything!" I warned her.

"I don't know what you mean," she replied batting her eyelashes in false innocence.

"At least Haruhi is coming to help me out on Tuesday…" I sighed.

"Really? I didn't know you two spoke?"

"Yeah he's nice, we may get a little more done without him zoning out every five minutes like Hikaru. You gonna be there?"

"Of course!"

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**Heh. Heh. Heh. Yeaah I wrote a lot for some reason. This is chapter 21 :O And there seems to be a lot left in our plan to write… this could end up huge XD Anyway, you lovely people seem to like to favourite our story but nobody reviews . So this for this chapter, in return for its length, I ask you all for reviews! :D**

**Silvana **

**:3**


	23. Chapter 22

**We got two reviews for the crappy chapter – more than we've had for a chapter for a long time. We expect more reviews or next time there will be another crappy chapter, with no replacement!**

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**Azalea's POV**

The threats that Reginald had aimed at the host club had me worried. I knew that he was prepared to do whatever he was planning, but whether or not he was successful was another thing entirely. He had been close before. Ardea had tried to convince me that he wouldn't manage to hurt my friends in anyway, but now after thinking of what he has done before, I am back to biting my nails and looking around shiftily whenever I am with them.

Why did _Reggie_ have to bother us? Why did he have to like me? Why couldn't he like Ardea – hell, why couldn't someone normal like me?

I tried to be more positive as we planned Ardea's birthday party. I hadn't been around when she had had Hikaru round to help with planning, but by the looks of things when I walked in her room later they hadn't got much planning done. But for this planning session, we had swapped one useless boy (Hikaru, who was about as interested in party planning as I was in peeling potatoes) for another boy who we didn't really know – Haruhi – a member of the host club that neither Ardea or I had had much interaction with. Haruhi seemed very feminine in a weird sort of way – he was either extremely camp or gay. The latter of the two might explain Tamaki's weird obsession with him.

Haruhi arrived on the Tuesday afternoon as planned. However, something that we hadn't expected him to do was turn out to be a she.

"Hi Haruh- wait... what?" I stuttered as I took in the teal dress that the brunette girl was wearing. This was most definitely a girl.

"Did Tamaki not tell you?" She asked. I shook my head.

"He usually lets everything slip," I heard her mutter as I let her in. She widened her eyes as she saw the expensive furniture and grand rooms. Ardea came downstairs at that moment and saw the back of Haruhi's head.

"Whose that?" She mouthed to me whilst pointing at Haruhi.

"Haruhi." I mouthed back, and Ardea pulled a face so full of shock I tried not to laugh as Haruhi turned round – probably noticing that I was communicating with someone else besides her. She clocked Ardea and gave a small smile and a wave and I got out some drinks for us as the others went to sit at the table.

"So... colours?" I heard Ardea ask as she flicked through lots of different magazines and books and catalogues.

"Light blue!" I yelled through the hallway as I walked through to where they were sitting. I noticed Ardea pull a face and then I added on, "with silver – not white though. We don't want it to look like a sailor party."

"Okay," Ardea agreed, nodding. Then we went on to argue out about the type of music, food, guests that she wanted. In the end it was the host club and our entire class invited. Ardea made a play-list of songs that she wanted and we ended up agreeing that normal party food would be good.

"What about times?" Haruhi asked, pointing out something that had completely slipped my mind.

"Well, Dad said that everyone has to be gone by eleven thirty except the host club who have to be gone by twelve." I informed her.

"You should start at around half seven then? That way the party is about four hours long." Haruhi suggested to Ardea who thought for a moment and then nodded. I noticed that she had been eyeing a red dress in the catalogue for about ten minutes. It was a red, one shouldered dress with floral sequin detailing on the shoulder. I gave her some paper to write it down but she went to the phone and ordered it straight away so it would get here in time. I already had an outfit planned in my wardrobe so I didn't have to worry thank god. Haruhi didn't mention anything about buying an outfit – but then according to Tamaki she is the school's commoner, so maybe she can't afford to buy anything?

**Ardea's Birthday...**

"It's my birthday!" Ardea yelled as she jumped up and down on my bed nearly jumping on my legs a few times. I groaned and sat up, trying not to look too miserable on her birthday. I gave a very tired smile and got up to get a nicely decorated bag with ribbons on the side. I handed it too her and she opened it enthusiastically. Inside were two boxes – one large and the other smaller. She gave me a hug once she opened the first box and saw a gorgeous ring inside that I had picked myself, but I heard her give a squeal as she opened the second box to find a crystal tiara inside.

"You've got to have a tiara on your 16th birthday!" I said and she put it on and went to admire herself in the mirror.

"Thank you!" She said and I laughed and dragged her away to go eat some breakfast. She would get a present from Dad tomorrow as he was away on business today and no doubt everyone at the party would bring a present for her.

We talked all about the party – Ardea was obviously very excited for her party. But there wasn't much to do until we had to start getting ready, so we ended up getting ready as soon as breakfast was done and cleared up. I showered using every single nice smelling product in the bathroom, then painted both my fingernails and toe's black even though nobody would see my toes later. When I felt clean and done, I chucked on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt for when the twins arrived to blow up balloons.

Hikaru and Kaoru arrived at 3pm with a huge bag of blue and silver balloons. Within two hours, the reception room had balloons floating and hanging from ribbons on every wall and corner of the room. Then we set up the table for the food and the twins carried the huge iPod docking station downstairs. They went home after that to get ready and Ardea and I did the same.

At half five, we got a call from Dad who gave us another reminder that most of the guests were to be gone by 11.30. I rolled my eyes and said goodbye, hanging up on him in a sarcastic manner that was likely to get me told off when he got home. He wouldn't know even if we didn't end the party at that time, all the staff had gone home for the day so there wouldn't be anyone to spy on us anyway.

Ardea wore her hair loose for the party. She wore the red dress she had ordered, some black heels, the tiara and ring I had bought her and a chain with two silver wings hanging down from it. She definitely looked like the birthday girl. I wore a white dress with ruffles at the bottom and black around the hem and neckline with a frilly black and gold belt with a bow on the side. I put on some nude coloured shoe boots with lace on them and finally, two bangles.

At ten past seven, I knocked on Ardea's bedroom door and walked in to see her looking in the mirror again, wiping and reapplying make-up. I rolled my eyes and took the make-up away from her hands.

"You look great, now lets go!" I said and we made our way downstairs. Ardea put some music on ready for anyone who got there early and I set out some cups and put the food out as quickly as I could, verbally abusing myself mentally for not remembering to do that a little bit earlier.

By 8pm, the party was in full swing and almost everyone invited had been able to make it. I ran around the house making sure no-one made any mess and cleaned up any drinks spillages and generally making sure everyone was comfortable so that Ardea's party went smoothly. Ardea was having a good time hopefully, the face she pulled when she saw how many presents she had received from the guests was hilarious. I noticed that during a slow song, she had been dancing with Hikaru which was so cute that I had to take a picture – from far away, zoomed in of course, I wouldn't want to interrupt anything.

Everything was going well until about half ten. In the front room I noticed some empty bottles of alcohol in the living room where quite a few people were relaxing. My dad had allowed a limited amount of alcopops but he definitely wouldn't have allowed bottles of vodka. There were two boys bouncing around like hairy apes, slurring their words and threatening to hit each other and using profane language that I had never even heard in my life. There was a crowd starting to gather as they got louder and more violent. I desperately looked round for someone who could intervene without getting too hurt as the argument was turning to a fist fight. I would NOT have anything broken in my house. My dad would kill me.

"Jus' cos you..." But the boy never got to finish his sentence as the other ran into him, knocking him to the floor and continuously pounding at his face. How could someone act so... so... animal-like?

Mori pushed past me at this point and grabbed both boys by the collar and took them outside. Everyone in the living room was quiet for a moment and I gave a sigh of relief when I noticed that not all the guests had noticed and were still dancing in the second reception room. It was quiet for a moment as all the guests shuffled about and re-arranged themselves so more of them were sitting down or back in the other room. Then Mori returned and true to form, Honey ran over and praised him to which a few girls squealed and the party was back on track. I disposed of the vodka bottles and thanked Mori for stepping in to which was replied with a 'Hm' and a slight nod. Of course

After everyone but the host club had left, Hikaru, Ardea, Mori and Honey joined Kyouya, Kaoru, Haruhi and I back in the living room. They seemed more themselves now that they were alone and Tamaki was twirling round the room with Ardea in hand singing her a birthday song and congratulating her in his ridiculous articulate ways that I couldn't repeat for fear of sounding cheesy if I tried. He and Honey both teased Ardea constantly about how she could now marry Hikaru which made her blush whilst Hikaru seemed indifferent – he was probably used to comments like this by now.

"And now it is probably his plan to get you into bed somehow," Tamaki teased, winking at the pair of them. Now Hikaru blushed and Ardea was so embarrassed that she slapped him. I laughed and shook my head. I'd spent so much time running around keeping everything tidy, now I could spend more time enjoying myself too.

That was when some idiot suggested playing hide and seek, which we spent the most part hunting for the people who were lost in the huge house. Thats why we gave up in the end and congregated in the living room again.

Kaoru went to find a toilet just while the host club were leaving and the rest of the host club said that he could find his own way back, which I wasn't too happy about – it was dangerous at night.

Hikaru poked me in the arm and motioned for me to follow him into the kitchen.

"I'm going to stay and wait for Kaoru, okay?" He asked me, although it was more of a statement. I nodded and he walked off to the bathroom. At least he was going to go that way until he looked the other way and walked in the wrong direction.

"Hikaru!" I yelled out, following him. "You're going the wrong way!"

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**So, that's the real chapter. Review. Or. The Giant Mushrooms of Terror that Tamaki grew will eat you. Alive. :D**

**Ash =3**


	24. Chapter 23

**Ardea's POV**

Things began to calm down, as it got darker, when all but the host club had left. Until of course someone suggested a game of hide and seek in the dark. There were no objections, and the game began quickly. Kaoru was the first to be the seeker. Everyone began scattering around the house immediately.

I ran upstairs and into the first room I saw, which just so happened to be my room. It was easy to make my way across my room, with a mental map of it in my mind. It smelled like jasmine for some strange reason.

I paced around my room for a while, wondering where to hide. Nobody would be able to hear me walking; my room was almost soundproof with the heavy door shut. I knew I had to hide soon or someone would come in and bust me.

I crawled under my bed and pulled the sheets down a little to cover the gap between the bed and the floor, with just a small gap so I could keep an eye on the door. I sighed and began to sing under my breath. It would be a long time before I was found. This house was huge.

There was a creak as the door slowly slid open. I held my breath and hoped they didn't look around.

I could just about see the outline of a dark figure in the small amount of lighting coming through the window, but it was too dark to tell who it was.

I dared not move, even as they slowly walked towards the bed. It was hard to resist the urge to laugh as the dark figure walked straight into the bed and began jumping up and down in a silent expression of pain. Whoever it was had little coordination and didn't know their way around the house.

My silent laughter was soon stopped as the figure bent down and began to pull the sheets up. A moment of horror took me over. He just had to check in my hiding place first. I so hoped it wasn't Kaoru… I hated losing. Perhaps if he just took a quick look, he wouldn't see me, and I would get away with it. But no, the figure began to shuffle under the bed.

My eyes strained to see who it was, but there was no light under the bed to even make out an outline anymore. All I could tell was that it wasn't a female, whoever it was had too strong a build, and nowhere near enough curves.

If I moved they would no doubt, hear me. Then the figure brushed my arm and I let out a yelp. The person rolled out from under the bed faster than I though possible, hitting their head and leaping up to stand.

Startled, I pushed my way out of the bed too and stood a small distance from the dark figure. The figure began laughing, and I instantly knew who it was.

"Wow, Hikaru, you scared the shit out of me." I laughed, moving closer towards him, relief flooding through me now that I knew it wasn't the seeker who had caught me.

"Ardea? Is that you? You can even tell it's me in the dark?" he asked, in a tone I couldn't pinpoint.

I laughed again. "Of course I can. You're unique. Special to me." I clamped my hand over my mouth when I realized what I said, and mumbled in a lame attempt to cover it up. "Uh… can't everyone?"

My face was hot, and must have been a bright red. Thank goodness the room was dark. Though I couldn't see his face, I saw his amused expression clearly in my mind.

But all of a sudden his arms snaked around my waist, pulling my closer. My heart began to beat faster than I thought possible. Me and Hikaru were alone together, in a dark room. This was crazy.

Hikaru's scent surrounded me, soap and lemons, and I felt light headed and happy. His face was just inches away from mine. This was the second time in two weeks we had been this close. Not that I minded too much.

"I can hear your heart beat," he whispered, a smile in his voice. Every fibre inside of me wanted to move close to him, to hold him back. So I yielded to that commands of my body and wrapped my arms around his neck. This was so strange. Was this really happening?

Then his lips brushed mine softly, gentle, questioning. I leaned into him and our lips met in a gentle, perfect kiss.

All that was left in the world was he and I. All I could feel was his arms, his lips. All I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears.

He gently pulled back. Then another two short, soft kisses. Everyone made me feel like I was on fire. I was burning under his touch, his gaze, everything about him.

I couldn't feel my toes.

Hikaru slowly pulled away from me, my arms falling from around his neck. Immediately I wanted to pull him back to me again, but my body was frozen in a feeling of bliss.

"Happy Birthday." His soft whisper hung in the air, even as he left the room, calling out the door for his brother as he went.

I sank down onto my bed and put my fingers to my lips. Wow. I had actually kissed Hikaru. Finally. And he had kissed me back. I don't think I had ever felt this way before. I hadn't ever thought I would. But somehow the impossible had happened. I had fallen in love with Hikaru Hitachiin.

Later…

I had been sitting downstairs for the ten minutes with Tamaki, Kyouya, Honey and Mori all talking. I couldn't concentrate very well, all I could think about was my kiss with Hikaru. His soft lips. His gentle hands. Azalea was going to freak when I told her. I wondered where she was?

In fact, where had she Hikaru and Kaoru disappeared to for and entire half-hour? I was sure Kaoru had only gone to the toilet… It was sort of a relief that Hikaru had been missing a while though. If he had been here at any point in the last hour I might have melted right there in front of everybody. Either that or jumped him.

Good thing, if unfortunate, that everyone left over had to leave around 12 o'clock. So I had to give my thanks, and lots of hugs, without Azalea. After I had checked that there was nobody left over, I began to search for Azalea and the twins. I didn't know if they would all be together, but I knew they would all be in the house. Azalea lived here, so of course she wouldn't leave, but the twins wouldn't leave without saying goodbye to me.

My best bet was Azalea's room, so I headed there first. Agonizingly empty.

Then an idea clicked in my mind. Uncle Thomas had a room in which he sometimes entertained guests. This room had it's own bar. No doubt it was presently being ransacked. Azalea would have no chance alone with the influence of the twins.

I headed there immediately, and sure enough there sat Azalea, Kaoru and Hikaru, raiding the bar. Azalea held a bottle of red wine. The twins each had their own glasses.

Azalea cheered as I entered, beckoning me over, already pouring another glass of the rich red wine.

I couldn't stop the blush rising to my face as I glanced at Hikaru, who was smiling at me, obviously very drunk.

Azalea drunk giggled and flopped onto Kaoru's lap, spilling half of the wine she was handing me on the floor. I took the glass out of her hand before she broke it.

"Heeeeey Deeeah!" slurred Azalea, still lying on Kaoru's lap giggling.

"Your Dad is going to kill you," I informed her, raising a brow. "You are wasted."

"Oh hush," she replied, pulling herself off of a smiling Kaoru to sit on the bar table. It was kind of creeping me out how the twins were just watching me, grinning. Imagine it, it's disturbing.

Azalea re-filled my almost empty wine glass. Not that I had drunk much of it, it was mostly on the floor.

"Now come join us, and drink!" cheered Kaoru.

I sat next to Hikaru and sipped my drink with a sigh.

"You two were supposed to have left at 12 o'clock, it is now…" I glanced at the clock, "12.30 in the morning."

"But the night is still young! The party has just started! There are no adults, LET THE PARTY CONTINUE!" Azalea shouted with a battle cry, joined quickly by the twins.

Hikaru flung his arm around my shoulders, just as Kaoru did the same to Azalea, and he proclaimed that we were both "Sho pr-pr-preeety." His words, not mine. Then the three drunkards dissolved into laughter.

"Absobloodylootly! Blimey, this is a barmy party. I am off my face, " slurred Kaoru in attempted English, complete with an over exaggerated accent. I had to roll my eyes at his attempt. The others fell on the floor laughing their arses off.

"It is true though," Azalea said, as if continuing a conversation that actually hadn't even been started. "You can reeeeally hear your English accent. You posh sound! You posh sound? I mean you sound posh! Bugger and blast!" She was almost crying with laughter at this point.

This was going to be a long night, may as well get hammered too. I downed my drink and held out my glass for more. What was the point in being the wet blanket at my own party?

"Now I am here, we can _really_ get this party started." I announced with a wink. Cheesy, but oh so appropriate.

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**No more writing chapters in advance again… its hard to link them later D: Getting kinda jealous because everyone pairs Hikaru with Haruhi... HES MINE! :D **

**Silvana**


	25. Chapter 24

**Azalea's POV**

I flittered between waking and consciousness on an extremely comfortable bed. But it wasn't my own. I put my hand to my head and murmured at the throbbing headache that encapsulated me. As I finally opened my eyes fully I saw that I was in a smallish room and Ardea was snoring lightly besides me. A large TV hung on the wall inside a wooden unit that had clothes sprawled out over it and a mirror with lipstick stains over it. I slowly sat up without and groaned at how light it was. It was strange for it to be so bright in early spring. Looking round I saw that the room I was in had a balcony with a pretty white outdoor table set. I pulled the covers off my legs and trudged over to the door to close the curtains which is when I got a full view of what we were overlooking.

"Oh… my…" I paused and took in a large breath of air.

"Ardea!" I shouted as loudly as I could without furthering the pain in my head. I ran over to her bed and shook her violently, feeling rather panicky. She rolled over, eyes wide open.

"What?" She asked and then winced. She was feeling the full effects of our 'partying' last night.

"We're in the middle of the ocean!"

She jumped up rather more quickly than I had done and went to look for her-self. I heard her whisper something under her breath and then continue to stare at the rippling waves. I tried to remember the night before with only one memory. It was partly my fault we were here.

_I was sitting at my computer desk with Ardea, Hikaru and Kaoru all giggling behind me. We were looking at something on the internet when we managed to find ourselves on a holiday website._

"_I need a holiday," Ardea said, slightly slurring. I clicked on an offer for a two-week long cruise around the Caribbean and pointed at the screen with over-excitement. _

"_Lookie! Look, Lookie!" I screamed and leaned back only to fall onto the floor followed by more giggles from the other drunks in the room. "Let's do this!" I laughed and Kaoru helped me up off the floor. _

… And that was all I could remember.

"Where are the twins?" Ardea asked, turning round to look at me. I shrugged and pulled my phone out of my bag that was flung over the sofa to see if we could get any reception here. It sounded ridiculous that you could get reception over the sea, but I had been on a cruise before and I knew it was possible. Good. Full reception.

I called Kaoru's number on my phone but didn't get any answer.

"Did they even come with us?" I asked and Ardea nodded.

"Yeah, I remember the sail-away party. The four of us paid the waiters to give us cocktails. Well – me and the twins did, everyone speaks English." She added with a grin.

"Humph." I replied and looked around to the unit and desk which had had the clothes all over it. They were my clothes and on the floor there was a big bag that had some underwear in it. I examined the damage of my drunken packing. I had plenty of underwear – no doubt about that. Only there was a problem. I had three different coloured t-shirts, an evening dress, a long pair of socks, no shoes and a pair of pink shorts. Wonderful. I grimaced and looked over at Ardea who was doing the same as I was.

"I didn't bring any underwear!" She exclaimed and I fought back a snigger.

"There's shops don't worry, let's just hope we have enough money to actually buy clothes because there is no way I am wearing an orange t-shirt and pink shorts. I'll look like Dora the Explorer!"

I tried ringing Kaoru again and was unsuccessful once again. I threw my phone onto the bed and looked in the room wardrobe to look for the dressing gown's that were always there. They were plain white. I took them off the hanger and threw one to Ardea, but her back was turned and it landed on her head. I slipped mine on over the pretty dress I had worn last night. I could have almost cried as I inspected the damage now. It had red wine all down the front and the side had a rip in it. It was irreparable. Ardea's dress hadn't survived either. The sequined flower was destroyed and she also had alcohol stains down the front.

"Put this on until we buy more clothes." I told her and she did so. Then I jumped onto my bed and picked up the phone. I pressed on the room service button and told Ardea to ask for fruit for breakfast and some paracetamol. They agreed to bring it up and we put the TV on low whilst we waited for waiters to bring food up. Ardea let my put the Japanese subtitles on so I could tell what was going on. It was the millionth time that I had to remind myself to get an English teacher.

There was a knock on the door and I let in the tall waiter who was rather good looking. I raised my eyebrows at Ardea who smirked as he lay everything on the table and then said something to me. I looked over at Ardea sadly – who gave him a reply and handed him a tip.

"I need to learn English." I complained as I poked at my fruit once the waiter had left.

"I can teach you a few little words that will help you?" She suggested but I already knew most important ones such as 'I'm lost', 'I don't speak much English' and 'could you point me in the direction of the toilet'.

"Nah, I'll just have you as my translator for the holiday. I'll get English lessons when we get home." I said. "Speaking of, Dad's away. I better call one of the servants to make sure they feed Tare."

After breakfast we walked out into the promenade of the ship which had a few of the shops in it. There wasn't a huge amount of shops but it was enough for a fortnight's worth of outfits. We both walked out with huge shopping bags and got lost on the way to our room – plus, hallways to cabin rooms aren't that big in ships. We were frequently pulling and kicking bags so we could fit through the gaps. Needless to say we did get very strange looks wearing dressing gowns and no shoes. In the end we had to ask some Spanish guy for directions. Apparently he didn't speak great English. I wouldn't know.

"Ring Hikaru, they might pick up if you call them," I said with a sigh and flopped back onto my bed, all my shopping dumped on the coffee table. Ardea raised an eyebrow at my comment but did get her phone out. Ooh surprise, surprise, he picked up.

"Yeah," She said and I listened, hoping to hear overhear Hikaru saying something if I was quiet enough. "Yeah… okay… meet you there." Ardea said and I noticed her linger before hanging up. I propped myself up onto my elbow.

"You so obviously like each other, when are you going to get together?" I asked, and Ardea shuffled her feet nervously. She had something to tell me.

"He kissed me yesterday." She said and my jaw dropped. I had not been expecting her to say that

"And when were you planning on telling me?" I asked, hitting her with my pillow and sitting up to hear more details. "When did this happen?"

"During hide and seek. We both got the same hiding place." She said and then started putting her shopping away. She wasn't going to tell me anything of interest.

"Very romantic… and slightly awkward." I said and grabbed some toiletries so I could have a shower. I felt disgusting. All manky and weird and gross. The shower made me feel so much better. I washed my hair and felt the waves that had resulted from last night's curly hair style drop out and I scrubbed and scrubbed until I felt as clean as I could possibly get in a tiny cabin shower.

I got out and put on a black pair of shorts and a pink halter-neck before putting on a little bit of make-up and concealer to disguise the bags under my eyes from my hangover. I had remembered to buy some sunglasses for when the paracetamol wore off. Ardea got out of the shower, now dressed and ready to go.

"So where and when are we meeting them?" I asked as she dumped her dress in her bag, looking slightly annoyed. I know she had liked that dress.

"In ten minutes outside the pizza place on the promenade level." She said and so I shoved some sandals on and we made our way down. It appeared that the twins had done a better job of packing than we had done. But they didn't do so well when it came to hangovers. Their hair was a mess and they looked so tired and worn out. But they were dressed well in knee length shorts and day shirts. How could they be so ridiculously gorgeous while looking so rough? We sat down beside them and each got a half-hearted smile. I pulled some pain killers out of my bag which they gladly took and then we had something to eat whilst waiting for them to perk up.

"So, how much do you two remember from last night?" Ardea asked.

"Not a lot. I remember the –" But Hikaru stopped. Ardea blushed and they both looked down at the table. I tried not to laugh at the pair of them. He would have obviously told Kaoru and Ardea had (eventually) told me, so he must just be very shy.

"Let's go to the top deck and get some sun!" I suggested and although we all knew that at this moment in time we would have much rather been sitting in a dark room, it was better than not doing anything. Kaoru and I walked behind as we saw Hikaru nervously take Ardea's hand to walk up to the top deck.

"Feeling any better?" I asked Kaoru who was looking round the shops and clubs with amazement. I noticed he got more interested when he saw a women's salsa dance session.

"Kaoru!" I yelled and clicked my fingers in front of his face. He snapped out of it and looked back at me.

"Feeling any better?" I repeated.

"Well, I've had better days but yes, thanks. How about you?" He asked.

"Pretty much the same." I murmured and then he handed me a credit card sized card which had my name on it. I looked up at him puzzled and he explained.

"I found it in my wallet – along with a picture you drew of two stick people with love hearts around it." He said with a chuckle. Oh god. I could feel myself blushing – how embarrassing.

"Sorry!"

"Don't be, I think I'm going to keep it." He said with a wink.

"Hey! Did you know that tonight is formal night?" Ardea yelled back at us, pointing to a large sign on the interactive map on the wall. Yes! I loved formal nights, an excuse to dress up all posh for dinner and get our photos taken. Plus, this would mean that we got to see the twins in suits. Yum.

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**For some reason, I found this chapter extra hard to write and I had loooooaaaads of babbling in it. I cut it down and it was still four pages long. I apologise for the long wait xD I think Silvana was going to kill me if I didn't get it out soon – she'd already threatened to kick me in the shins xD**

**Oh! REVIEW! **

**Ash =3**


	26. Chapter 25

Finding our way around the ship proved to be easy for everyone except me. It seems that Azalea and the twins went on cruises all the time. It's all good for the rich and high-class, I have never been on a proper boat in my life, let alone a cruise. So I was forced to have to follow everyone around like a lost puppy. It was rather annoying. I did have other things to worry about though. Like the fact I now had no idea how to react to Hikaru. I thought I was going to explode with happiness when he took my hand earlier. That just proved to my disbelieving, aching head that it was all real, and that made me happier than I had ever felt. It was with disappointment that I had to let his hand go so that Azalea and I could go and prepare for the formal night that Azalea had insisted we should all attend. I found it odd that she didn't seem to be worrying about this at all. She didn't really mention what Uncle Thomas would do when he found out or what we would say to everyone when we got home. I thought perhaps Azalea was just putting it out of her mind and pretending it wasn't going to happen, but I knew we needed to sort a few things out.

"What are we going to say to your dad?" I asked, sitting down on the bed whilst Azalea finished her make-up.

"I don't know," she said simply, putting the final touches to her eyeliner on, not a care in the world.

"Well... don't you think he is going to be angry?"

"Of course he is. We just need to think up a good excuse and prepare for a lot of grounding. But for now, we may as well enjoy the freedom we have," she smiled, bright and excited. If I was an anime character I probably would have sweat dropped. However I could only look at her, not quite believing she was so calm about this. Had she gone crazy?

I sighed and pulled on my shoes in defeat. I guess all I could do was try to enjoy this and not act like a complete moron around Hikaru. That was going to be a huge task alone.

Once we had finished getting ready we set out to find the twins. They were supposed to be meeting us on the main deck just as it was getting dark, but we managed to arrive before them. I leaned over the side of the ship to watch the sun slowly set, whilst Azalea lounged on a posh sun bed drinking something colourful she had taken from a passing waiter.

The reds and pinks of the sunset helped to calm my nerves. While we were stuck on this cruise it would be nice to enjoy it. At least part of my drunken self had the sense to pick something that I could enjoy. I watched the colours swirl into each other until the horizon began to grow more and more dark.

Arms wrapped around my waist and I was swung around, a girlish giggle escaping my throat before I could stop it. Kaoru stood a few metres in front of me, talking to Azalea in excited tones, which must mean that person who had grabbed me was Hikaru. My face turned a bright shade of pink and my body went tense. His arms were still wrapped around my waist and I didn't know what to do. Should I turn around? Pull away?

Why was I having these problems now? I had always been so confident when it came to guys. I was always the one in control, the one to make the first move. So why did Hikaru make me feel so nervous and unsure of myself? Slowly Hikaru's arms pulled away, and I realised I wanted nothing more than for him to hold me again, which made me blush about a million times more. Instead he took my hand and my face burned. It was like he knew that I had no clue how to act around him. After all he hadn't actually asked me out. Why was this all so confusing?

The dining room was decorated in a royal theme, with long sweeping blue curtains, white tablecloths and a huge crystal chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The waiters were dressed in formal black tuxedos with silver trays for drinks, or huge baskets full of bread. The food was the most amazing thing I had ever tasted, even better than the stuff that the chef at home served. I felt as if I were actually a part of this higher class for once, rather than someone watching from just outside. Despite the complicated situation we were in I found I was glad of it. I was with my best friend and Hikaru, who didn't seem to regret anything that had happened.

We next moved into the main hall where people were dancing, which looked like another world compared to the formal dinner. People who I thought wouldn't be seen with a scowl off their face when in more 'common' company were actually dancing like they hadn't a care in the world. I'm sure I saw a few people grinding too, which I would have thought would be unheard of in such high class company. I guess even they knew how to let their hair down when there was nobody outside of their circle to see it. Azalea took my hand and dragged me into the dance floor where she proceeded to dance, and forced me to dance too. The lights were blinding and it was impossible not to get caught up in the exciting atmosphere.

I only glimpsed the twins for a second when they were doing one of their twincest acts, girls swooning over them. A stab of jealousy shot through me and suddenly I didn't feel like dancing anymore.

"I'm going to get a drink, do you want anything?" I asked Azalea.

"Cola please!" She smiled, twirling away.

I made my way up the bar and pulled my purse out of my small bag. I ordered two cola's and then turned to watch the party as I waited for my drinks.

Someone sidled up to me, closer than I was entirely comfortable with. I tried to slide away from the stranger but there were people standing on the other side of me. He moved up closer and breathed into my face, his breath reeking of beer. He was obviously very drunk.

"What chu doing pretty lady?" he slurred. I tried to ignore him, but it got harder and harder as his face got closer to mine.

"Giveus a kiss," he smirked.

"Leave me alone," I said firmly, glaring at him. But still he didn't seem to get the idea. He grabbed my wrist and began to try and pull me onto the dance floor. I dug my heels into the floor and tried to wriggle my wrist free from his sweaty grasp. Panic began to seep into my bones as I slowly realised that I couldn't get away. This man was very drunk and strong.

I filled my lungs with air, ready to let out a scream. Surely someone would then pull him off. I gave one last tug, just about to scream, when Hikaru came up and stepped between me and the drunkard, who immediately let go of my wrist. That told me a lot about how scary Hikaru's expression must be. Relief washed through me as I realised that I was now safe. I couldn't hear what Hikaru was saying to the man over the sound of the music but whatever it was it made him leave with his tail between his legs.

Hikaru turned to me looking concerned.

"Are you okay?" he asked, taking my hand almost absentmindedly. Almost.

"I'm fine," I smiled before adding, "thanks to you." He smiled at me and I swear for a second it made my heart skip a beat. I had never been happier to know someone in my life than I was now.

"Well... that's what I'm here for. I'm nothing if I cant even protect my girlfr-" he stopped abruptly. My face turned a heated shade of crimson. He nearly said girlfriend! Is that how he thought of me?

"I- Uh, well, I mean... uhm... so are we?...Will you-..." He sighed and seemed to give up.

"Yes!" I blurted before I could stop myself. I slapped my hands over my mouth and looked at him wide eyed. What if I had the wrong idea? What if-

"Yes? Really?" He looked utterly shocked. "So, you'll be mine? Uh, my girlfriend I mean."

Though my embarrassment tried to prevent it I screwed my eyes shut and nodded in a way that was probably a little too enthusiastic. I had never seen Hikaru this nervous over anything and I was glad I wasn't the only one. Then again, I could be dreaming. It was a rather cheesy dream then. This whole thing was a little cheesier than I was usually comfortable with. But it was something about him that made things like that matter not to me any longer. It was as if I could finally see what it was like for other girls when they were swept up in that entire romantic gush. I liked it.

I opened my eyes and looked up at Hikaru. He smiled at me so sweetly that I thought I could drop down dead right there and be perfectly content. Though not very satisfied because, well, I'd be dead. I wanted to live out this moment, and have many to come, more than I had wanted anything in the world. Even more than I had ever wanted my mum back.

Thoughts of my mum made me falter and remember my dad. How long had it been since I had left that life? I couldn't even remember what it felt like anymore. In a sudden moment of confidence I wrapped my arms around Hikaru in a tight hug, seeking the comfort I knew I'd find there. I was happy that this was now my life, and that finally I had someone in it who made me unconditionally happy. Right now I was sure I could never be happier and I would never let my past haunt me again.

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**This is horrifically late! I am also sure this chapter just sucks...I am very sorry! I just had an exteneded period of time where I could not physically force myself to write... but it seems I am back to a writing mood now, and I have a lot of free time on my hands because school is finally over! I am so excited for college! I also have a laptop now, so I cannot use the excuse I cannot get to the computer! More reviews, more determined I am to write! Like giving me lolly-pops... they fuel me too :D (thank you Ash, I love you so so so so much for proof reading. You're the most amazingest friend in the whole wide world and I'm so lucky to have you!)**_ (Well, Silvana - you are very welcome. Ash =3)_

**Silvana  
x**


	27. Special!

**Well hello there! Silvana here! I just wanted to apologise for the lack of updates and such, I am going to pester Ash for her chapter... However, to tide you over, and because I was very bored, I wrote a special chapter for you, which is basically a Tamaki x OC, because I was shopping, thinking about how much I think like Tamaki, but act on it far less. Somehow that became a short (not particually good) story. I am not proof reading this by the way, I need sleep! So I apologise for mistakes! Please enjoy~**

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What fist appeared to be a normal school day was quickly turning in to the worst day of my life. _If only_ I hadn't walked into the host club early that day. _If only_ I had decided to leave when I had first found it empty. _If only_ I had not snooped behind the curtain hanging randomly in one corner of the room.

"HARUHI IS A GIRL?" I screeched, stumbling backwards away from the curtain, falling straight onto my ass. Haruhi stared back at me in mild wonder.

"Uh oh!" chimed a pair of voices behind me. I continued to stare wide eyed at Haruhi as she finished buttoning her shirt up hurridly.

"Hikaru, Kaoru. It seems we must sort this out," sighed the unmistakable voice of Kyoya. I was swiftly yanked to my feet by two people holding either of my arms. One stepped over my legs as they turned me around and began to drag me off, my legs completely incapable of their own movement, my jaw still hanging and eyes bugged.

"What are you going to do with Elsie?" asked Haruhi. Her voice _was_ feminine. I hadn't imagined it the first time I had met her. By why would I _ever_ suspect him.. uh her, of being a girl? This was absolutely impossible.

"She shall be disposed of. Moved to a new school no doubt," came the calm reply of the Shadow King. This woke me up somewhat and I began to look around me. Hikaru and Kaoru were struggling to drag me across the old music room towards the door, but my limp state and dragging feet were making it an arduous task. I shifted myself so that my feet were on the ground and tried to pull away from the duo. They held firm.

"Get _off_ me!" I screamed, throwing myself around to make the twins task as difficult as possible.

"Come on Elsie,"

"You'll be fine," finished one for the other. Who the hell knew who was which.

A great shadow loomed over me, and I knew all hope was lost for me. Mori watched me, giving no emotion away with an expression at all. This terrified me. I gave one last yank and managed to free myself from the twins, and proceeded to sprint across the room in the opposite direction of the door. I screamed at the top of my lungs as I went. I was never one for being quiet, as much of a scene must be made with the maximum amount of attention.

I felt a hand wrap around the end of my dress and I fell on my face, spluttering the carpet.

"I got her!" sang Honey, as Mori slowly pulled me off of the ground and threw me effortlessly over his shoulder. I kicked and screamed like a true spoilt little girl. My younger sister would be proud.

"I don't want to leave!" I screamed. "I _like_ it here! I promise I won't tell. I promise, I promise, I promise!" I cried, half sobbing. I knew I was being a complete drama queen and probably greatly overreacting, but I had my reasons.

"What on earth is going on here?" called the most wonderful and welcome voice I could imagine at that moment, stopping my tantrum instantaneously. The king of the host club and most gorgeous person I had ever had the pleasure to see was standing in the doorway, looking at each of his friends, including me, looking completely confused.

"Ah, Tamaki, I wanted to speak of you about the next theme for summer," Kyoya said indifferent to my screeching from before and Tamaki's question. I huffed and banged my head against Mori's chest. He either didn't notice of just didn't care.

"What are you doing with Elsie?" asked Tamaki, causing Kyoya to glare at him for ignoring his question. What a hypocrite.

"She's leaving!" said Honey cheerfully, hugging Usa-chan and peering up at me. I stuck my tongue out at him and crossed my arms, with great difficulty I might add.

"What, why?" cried Tamaki, making his way across the room in slow, and absent minded steps. I snapped my head up to look at him, my earlier surprise washing over me in a watered-down version.

"Tamaki! Haruhi is a _girl_! Did you know? This is crazy! Wait until I tell Abigail, she will go absolutely crazy! And, Oh! Natsumi has had a crush on Haruhi for the longest time! She will just die!" I babbled, making wild hand gestures, my panic at the thought of leaving, and my already exaggerated personality, getting the better of me.

"And _that_ is why she has to leave," stated Kyoya, pushing his glasses further up his nose.

"There is no way she is going to keep her mouth shut," said one of the Hitachiins.

"Anybody else we would ask to keep it a secret," agreed the other twin.

"Or blackmail," smirked Kyoya, his eyes flashing. I shivered at the thought. Mori just grunted and Honey smiled, floating around the room, completely oblivious to the glared I was sending him for being so happy about this. This was practically the end of the world for me!

"You can't make me leave! I will refuse and so shall my father!" I stated confidently, wishing Mori would put me down already.

"On the contrary," smirked Kyoya. "He will certainly agree when he finds out that the phantom drawing things on the chalkboards in the morning is you. The teachers were not very happy about some of the things you drew you know," he explained, holding up incriminating pictures of me drawing on the boards. I flinched. My dad would kill me if he knew that was me. I had written some rather unkind things on the boards about people who had aggravated me or hurt my friends.

"You wouldn't dare!" I spat, glaring at the dark haired boy. I knew he would. He wasn't called the Shadow King for nothing.

"We'll give you a few days to pack," he smiled in return. I flopped down in defeat and Mori lowered me to the ground, knowing I wouldn't fight any more. I slumped down, not even able to muster the energy to stand.

"No..." Tamaki breathed. I looked up at him and gave with a sad smile. He would be the person I regretted leaving the most. Kyoya offered me his hand and I knew he wanted me to hand in my papers to leave now. I took his and rose to my feet, following behind him.

"I swear I would keep it a secret," I whispered, in a final attempt to change this. I was ignored, of course. I smiled one last time as I passed Tamaki, walking out of the door. I savoured what would be one of my last glimpses of the boy I had slowly fallen in love with over the last two years. Then the door shut behind me and I lost sight of him, unable to decipher the last expression I had seen on his face. At least he seemed truly sad that I would be leaving. I stared at the floor as I slowly followed Kyoya down the hall, feeling like I was walking to the gallows, singing softly under my breath.

"_Got a secret, can you keep it? Swear this one you'll save. Better lock it, in your pocket. Taking this one to the grave. If I show you, then I know you won't tell what I said. 'Cause two can keep a secret if one of them is dead. You swore you'd never tell, you swore you'd ne-" _My low singing was abruptly cut off by a voice resembling a battle cry, as a certain blonde hair boy rocketed down the corridor, grabbing my hand and dragging me after him. I forced my legs after him as fast as possible, turning slightly to poke my tongue out at a surprisingly amused looking Kyoya. I gigged as Tamaki pulled me down two long corridors before finally stopping in an empty classroom, leaving us both gasping for breath. I smiled up at him and laughed at his red face as he watched me.

"Wow you are unfit," I giggled, leaping at him to give the gorgeous blonde a well deserved hug. He stood there rigidly. "Thank you, Tamaki," I whispered softly. Slowly his arms wrapped around me. I didn't want to move as the mood turned from bright and exciting, to something quieter that I couldn't completely describe. I reluctantly pulled away from him, knowing we had been standing there too long.

"I don't want you to leave," whispered Tamaki urgently, grabbing my shoulders roughly and holding my gaze.

"Why?" I asked smiling at him softly, feeling little butterflies in my stomach start to surface at the physical contact.

"Because... well-uh..." He stuttered, breaking eye contact looking as if he was struggling with something. "Well..." he breathed, staring deep into my eyes again. He pressed his lips to mine, and suddenly I had my answer. A wonderful warm feeling spread through me until I could no longer feel my toes. I kissed him back until we both pulled away, panting slightly. I smiled at him dazzingly, completely giddy. He stared at me wide eyed, apparently completely surprised at himself.

"We have to keep this a secret!" he whispered suddenly, looking around him for anybody who may have seen.

"Oh... yeah," I whispered, my smile faltering. He looked down at me.

"Only because of the host club," he smiled sadly. I understood. It didn't make it any easier to take.

"I know," I smiled sadly. He kissed me again softly and when he pulled away again I smiled properly. Even if it must remain a secret, it would be worth it, that was for sure.

* * *

**Okay okay, I know this kind of sucked. I did have another plan for it but then I got distracted... but hey, it's better than nothing! I will get onto badgering Ash for the next chapter straight away. If she disagrees I shall write it my damn self!**

**Silvana**


End file.
